Indian Navy’s multilateral exercise MILAN will be held in Visakhapatnam from February 25.

India will project its growing maritime power at the massive naval exercise  with the participation of over 40 countries.

The biennial exercise was scheduled to be held in 2020 but was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is MILAN?

• MILAN was first held in 1995  at Andaman and Nicobar Command. Apart from the Indian Navy, the navies of Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand participated in the inaugural edition.

• Since then, the exercise has since transitioned leaps and bounds in terms of number of participants and complexity of exercises. 

• Originally conceived in consonance with India’s ‘Look East Policy’, MILAN expanded in ensuing years with the government’s ‘Act East policy’ and Security And Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) initiative, to include participation from island nations in the Western Indian Ocean Region (IOR) as also IOR littorals.

• This biennial congregation of friendly navies, over the last two and a half decades, has progressively grown in magnitude with the previous edition in 2018 being attended by 17 countries.

• The event has been held biennially except for 2001, 2005, 2016 and 2020. While the 2001 and 2016 editions were not held due to International Fleet Reviews, the 2005 edition was rescheduled to 2006 due to the 2004 Tsunami.

MILAN 2022

• The theme of the MILAN 2022 exercise is ‘Camaraderie – Cohesion – Collaboration’.

• The aim of the exercise is to hone operational skills, imbibe best practices and procedures, and enable doctrinal learning in the maritime domain, through professional interaction between friendly navies.

• MILAN 22 will witness its largest ever participation, with more than 40 countries sending their warships/high level delegations. 

• This edition of MILAN would be larger in ‘scope and complexity’ with focus on exercises at sea including exercises in surface, sub-surface and air domains and weapon firings. 

• 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.

• The Harbour Phase the event from February 25-28 would allow participating navies to discuss maritime subjects of common concern and share solutions. Professional competitions and conferences planned during this phase shall build the operational tempo for the Sea Phase planned from March 1-4. This phase would be utilised to consolidate upon the lessons learnt during harbour interactions and to build upon the experience of operating together at sea.

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