MILAN 2022 commenced from the ‘City of Destiny’ Visakhapatnam in two phases. The harbour phase was scheduled from 25th February to 28th February and the sea phase was scheduled from 1st March to 4th March. It was conducted over 9 days. 

With the 75th year of Indian Independence, MILAN 2022 provides an opportunity to commemorate the occasion with our friendly nations. 

The recent naval exercise conducted by the Indian Navy, the MILAN 2022 aims to project India on the world stage as a responsible maritime power. It’s a biennial multilateral naval exercise aimed to hone the operational skills of the Navy, promote better practises and procedures, and imbibe doctrinal learning in the maritime domain through increased interaction among friendly navies. 

Multilateral Naval Exercise 

MILAN 2022 is a biennial multilateral naval exercise adopted by the Indian Navy in 1995 at the Andaman and Nicobar. The event has been held biennially since then. 

It did not take place in 2001 and 2006 due to International Fleet Reviews. The edition of 2005 was postponed to 2006 due to the Tsunami of 2004. The edition of MILAN of 2020 was postponed to 2022 due to COVID-19. 

Background Of MILAN

The recent naval exercise conducted by the Indian Navy, MILAN, first started with the participation of only four countries. These countries included Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. 

The exercise has now transformed leaps and bounds in terms of the total number of participants and the complexity of the exercises conducted. 

Originally, MILAN was conceived following the policies of ‘Look East Policy’ that was later expanded by following ‘Act East Policy’. The Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) initiative influenced participation from Island nations. 

The recent naval exercise conducted by the Indian Navy included the participation of 18 countries. The Indian Navy also increased its engagement with Friendly Foreign Countries. 

Increased engagement with Friendly Foreign Countries enhanced cooperation and led to an increase in the scale of complexity of the naval exercises. Both the regional and extra-regional navies of the world were engaged in this exercise. 

The event required a large infrastructure, hence it was moved to Visakhapatnam. Visakhapatnam is where the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command lies. 

List of Joint Naval exercises of India 2020

Following is a combined List of Joint Naval exercises of India 2020 

• 35th India-Indonesia CORPAT- Indian Navy and the Indonesian Navy participated in this exercise. It was conducted at the Andaman Sea. 

• SLINEX 2020- Indian Navy Advanced Light Helicopter Chetak Helicopter boarded the Indian Navy ships in this exercise. Dornier Maritime Patrol Aircraft also participated in this exercise. It was conducted by the Indian Navy and Sri Lankan Navy. 

• PASSEX Exercise 2020- medium ocean tanker Pechenga, RuFN guided-missile Varyag, and anti-submarine ship AdmiralPanteleyev participated in this exercise. It is one of the exercises on the list of Joint Naval exercises of India 2020. It was conducted in the Eastern Indian Ocean Region. 

• SIMBEX-20- Indian Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) participated in this exercise. It was conducted at the Andaman Sea. 

• SITMEX-2020- India, Thailand, and Singapore are the countries that participated in this exercise. It was conducted at the Andaman Sea. 

• ‘Bull Strike’ – Marine Commando Force, Special Forces and Elements of the Indian Army’s Parachute brigade participated in this exercise. It was held at Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC). 

• Malabar Naval Exercise 2020- United States Navy (USN), Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF), and the Indian Navy (IN) participated in this exercise. This first phase of this exercise was held at the Bay of Bengal. The second phase was conducted in the Arabian Sea. 

• Suraksha Kavach- Maharashtra Police and the Indian Army Navy participated in this Naval Exercise. It was conducted at Lulla Nagar, in the city of Pune, Maharashtra. 

• 4th JIMEX 2020- India and Japan participated in this Naval Exercise. It was conducted in the North Arabian Sea.

• EX Indradhanush V- 2020 – Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) participated in this exercise. It was held at the Hindon Air Force Station in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. 

• AJEYA WARRIOR 2020- The United Kingdom and India participated in this Naval Exercise. It was conducted in the United Kingdom. 

• DefExpo 2020- It was conducted in Lukhnow, Uttar Pradesh. 

• ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’- Japan and India participated in this exercise. It was conducted in Chennai. 

• MILAN 2020- It was a Naval Exercise conducted at Visakhapatnam. 

• BIMSTEC disaster management exercise- 2020- Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, and India participated in this exercise. It was conducted at Puri in Odisha. 

• SAMPRITI IX- India and Bangladesh participated in this Naval exercise. It was held at UMROI in Meghalaya, India. 

Conclusion

India and other Navies got together in the MILAN Naval Exercise to face the challenge of the growing presence of China in the Indian Ocean Region. MILAN 2022 was the largest ever multilateral Naval Exercise that involved the participation of more than 40 navies. Navies from Japan, US, UK and Australia also participated in this drill. MILAN is an instrument for its power projections and high diplomatic reach. The conduct of Multilateral Exercises is a significant step to bringing together different Navies and increasing their interaction.