‘Camaraderie – Cohesion – Collaboration’ is the theme in this edition and the aim is to project India as a responsible maritime power to the world.
Stage is all set for the largest and the latest edition of Indian Navy’s multilateral Ex MILAN 2022. The nine day exercise scheduled to start from February 25 until March 4, 2022 will begin in the ‘City of Destiny’, Visakhapatnam.
‘Camaraderie – Cohesion – Collaboration’ is the theme in this edition and the aim is to project India as a responsible maritime power to the world.
Aim
According to the Indian Navy, through professional interaction between friendly navies, the aim is to enable doctrinal learning in the maritime domain, hone operational skills, and imbibe best practices and procedures.
More about MILAN 22
This is a biennial naval exercise which is at the multilateral level and was incepted by Indian Navy in 1995 at Andaman and Nicobar Command.
This year, as has been reported in Financial Express Online earlier, it will be conducted in three phases — Harbour Phase which is scheduled from Feb 25 to 28 and the Sea Phase is from March 1-4, 2022.
From the time this exercise started, it has taken place biennially except for 2001, 2005, 2016 and 2020.
According to the Indian Navy, in 2001 and 2016 editions were not held due to International Fleet Reviews, and then in 2005 it had to be rescheduled to 2006 and this was done due to the Tsunami in 2004.
And the 2020 edition had to be rescheduled to 2022. This was done because of the global pandemic of COVID-19.
Countries participating
It all started with just four countries — Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand, participating in the 1995 edition. And from there on, the drill has grown in the number of countries participants and the complexity of the exercise.
This year, so far 41 countries including US, Russia, France, and more have confirmed their participation.
Originally the exercise was conceived in line with India’s ‘Look East Policy’, and now it has expanded and is in line with the government’s’Act East policy’ and Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) initiative.
Countries from Island nations in the Western IOR as also IOR littorals are all participating. From six regional countries to 18 countries in 2014 which included IOR littorals, it has gone up to almost 40 and more countries. And this is because of the growing engagement of the Indian navy with Friendly Foreign Countries (FFCs) and because of this the scale and complexity of the MILAN has gone up.
Why Visakhapatnam?
With so many ships, and requirement of infrastructure, the decision to host the event at the mainland and Visakhapatnam being the Headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command was taken.
*With Indian Navy’s engagement with Friendly Foreign Countries (FFCs) expanding over the decades, a need was felt to further consolidate naval cooperation by enhancing the scale and complexity of the MILAN exercise and engaging both regional and extra regional navies of the world*. Considering the infrastructure requirements of a large naval gathering, it was decided to shift the event to the mainland, and Visakhapatnam, being the Headquarters of Eastern Naval Command, was nominated to host the event.
Exercises at Sea
This will be more focused on air domains and weapons firing as well as surface, sub-surface and air domains.
The participation will also be in the form of top diplomats, naval leadership, agency heads will be present.
Will Russia participate?
According to a senior officer who wished to remain anonymous, “Yes. A top official is expected to be present from that country at the exercise.”
Major events at MILAN
On Feb 26, inauguration of the MILAN Village, and opening ceremony.
On Feb 27, International City Parade with participation of foreign contingents.
International Maritime Seminar with the theme – ‘Harnessing Collective Maritime Competence through Collaboration’ is scheduled for Feb 27-28.
What more has been planned?
DSRV Demonstration; Professional/ Subject Matter Expert Exchanges; MILAN of Young Officers; Sports Fixtures. This will be followed by visits to Bodh Gaya and Agra for the visiting participants.
