Kolkata, October 29 — The Indian Navy has started preparations for Exercise Sea Vigil 2026, a two-day, high-intensity coastal security exercise scheduled to be held on November 18-19, 2026, news agency IANS reported on Thursday.

Source: IANS via Asia Post

As part of a sensitisation campaign and community interaction programme, officials from INS Netaji Subhas in Kolkata travelled to Kultali in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Thursday. The visit, conducted in coordination with the Department of Fisheries, Government of West Bengal, was aimed at interacting with the large fishing community there and raising awareness about the exercise and their role as the 'Eyes and Ears of the Nation'.

This will be the fifth edition of Exercise Sea Vigil, which was last held in November 2024. The nationwide exercise spans India's entire 11,098 km coastline and its Exclusive Economic Zone of 2.4 million square kilometres. The 2024 edition involved six central ministries, 21 central and state agencies and key stakeholders from across the maritime security apparatus, and the Army and the Air Force also participated in it.

Source: IANS via The Freedom Press

Exercise Sea Vigil is designed to bolster the security of India's coastal assets, including ports, oil rigs, vulnerable areas, vulnerable points and cable landing stations, and to validate the standard operating procedures and coordination between agencies, including in intelligence sharing. The Indian Navy has been tasked as the lead agency for maritime security since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

Preparatory outreach of the kind held at Kultali is expected to continue in coastal areas ahead of the November exercise, as agencies test how prepared the coastal security grid is against emerging threats.