New Delhi, Sept. 7: India’s first joint internal exercise for coastal security is scheduled to take off after the monsoon, in a move sources said was aimed at tackling future threats from the sea.
The navy, coast guard, state marine police forces and customs personnel will be involved in the exercise on the western coast as the country girds up after the Mumbai attacks last November when militants sneaked in from the sea and wreaked havoc.
The decision to hold the internal exercise was taken at a meeting on coastal security on Friday. The government had amalgamated all coastal security agencies headed by the navy on March 1 this year and the maritime doctrine expanded to include maritime terrorism, piracy and coastal security.
“We have concluded one conceptual exercise on the eastern seafront commanded by the Indian Navy, which will be commanding this one as well,” a top home ministry official said.
A conceptual exercise — carried out to firm up a plan for a full-scale exercise — had also been conducted on the western seafront, according to a source.
During the post-monsoon exercise, the coast guard and maritime police in western states will be taken beyond their 12-nautical-mile area of domination in the high seas in a bid to increase co-ordination.
According to the plan, the navy will accompany them back into “shallow waters” after the expedition in the high seas. The exercise is expected to improve the agencies’ capability to co-ordinate effectively during a crisis.
Home ministry sources said marine police forces had 24 interceptor boats and 215 more of these high-speed vessels were expected to be delivered in the next two years. “Marine police will come to know what their responses would be on the coast when there is an intrusion,” the home ministry official said.
Another area of focus will be radar coverage. Overlapping radar coverage, a concept that will enable the navy and the coast guard to cover small areas left out earlier, will also be tried out during the exercise.
During the conceptual exercise on the eastern seafront, an assessment of vulnerable areas was carried out, sources said. However, the planned full-scale western exercise carries more importance because of the continuing threat perception from Pakistan. It will help the forces lay down standard operating procedures and arrive at a realistic assessment of preparation for men, material and time schedules in a crisis.
During the 26/11 attacks, 10 terrorists had sailed by MV Kuber, a fishing vessel, and switched to rubber dinghies before landing at Colaba in Mumbai. The attacks and the following threat perception necessitated the review of the maritime doctrine for the first time since 2004.
The lessons from the recent exercise on the eastern coast will be used to make the western exercise more effective.
The navy’s analysis shows that the entire coast needs to be divided into smaller sectors to assess the vulnerability and use an under-staffed marine police force better.
Maharashtra and Gujarat, the two key states for the exercise, will be divided into several sectors. The division will be done taking into consideration the needs of different areas.
For example, the Konkan coast has several sea forts, built by kings who once ruled the region, while the Saurashtra or Kutch coastline of Gujarat doesn’t have any.
Marine police forces will procure automatic identification system (AIS) transponders before the exercise begins, the sources said. AIS transponders transmit information about a ship to another ship and to coastal authorities automatically.
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