The Government of India has designated the Indian Coast Guard as the National Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination (NAMSARC) organisation and the Director General, Coast Guard as its convenor. Search and Rescue (SAR) at sea is a humanitarian issue and all mariners are duty-bound to attend all distress calls. It needs to be reiterated that all available resources need to be deployed for achieving success in SAR operations. Keeping this in view, Commander. Andaman Nicobar Coast Guard Region conducted operation Suraksha-I last year. It aimed at honing the manoeuvrability of CG ships and aircraft and testing the inter-operability of Coast Guard and IAF platforms.

The participants in the exercise included four Coast Guard ships, one CG Dornier, one CG Chetak and one IAF MI-8 helicopter. The exercise included sailing with dispatch by Coast Guard ships in response to a distress message from the local Port Control, search and rescue of a man overboard (MOB), location of MOB, throw of life raft by Dornier aircraft and recovery of the MOB by Coast Guard ships. A similar exercise was conducted between CG ships and Chetak helicopter. Casualty evacuation from CG ships by Chetak and IAF MI-8 was also conducted. The exercise also included live distress calls in portable maritime mobile band radio and SOLAS systems and towing of disabled ships. The M-SAR safety net was activated through the INMARSAT system.

The exercise proved the Andaman Nicobar Coast Guard region's ability to meet the SAR requirements and adaptability of CG-IAF platforms during joint operations.