In a world gripped by uncertainty, whether geopolitical conflict, terrorism, climate disasters, or nuclear risk, governments are stepping up their civil defence efforts through large-scale emergency preparedness exercises.
Published on Jul 23,2025 at 8:29 AM | Updated on Sep 11,2025 at 4:24 PM

Recent drills in India, Norway and the United States show how these exercises have become crucial instruments in strengthening resilience, ensuring inter-agency interoperability, and preparing civilian and military bodies for high-stakes crises.

 

India’s Operation Abhyaas: A historic national drill

On 7 May 2025, India conducted its largest civil defence exercise in over five decades, codenamed Operation Abhyaas. The exercise tested real-time coordination between police, fire services, healthcare, and municipal departments.

Prompted by the 22 April terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir—where 26 civilians were killed—this nationwide drill spearheaded by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) involved 244 districts, thousands of emergency responders, and millions of civilians.

The drills included blackout simulations, air raid siren tests, mock evacuations, and public training sessions. In Delhi, 60 air raid sirens sounded across 55 locations at precisely 4:00 PM, activating a series of coordinated evacuations in busy hubs like Chandni Chowk and Khan Market. In Hyderabad, between 4:00 and 4:30 PM, 12 civil defence services were engaged, with mock incidents staged at Golconda Fort and other key sites. Meanwhile, Kerala’s 14 districts and 16 cities in Maharashtra held parallel drills, down to the village level, involving schoolchildren, Home Guards, and civil society groups.

 

Joint Viking 2025: Arctic readiness in Norway

While India focused on internal defence, Norway was rehearsing NATO’s northern defence posture with Joint Viking 2025, a biennial exercise held from 3–14 March. Led by the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, the exercise brought together over 10,000 soldiers from nine countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Finland and the US. Activities took place across Troms and Nordland, encompassing land manoeuvres, air operations, and maritime exercises—designed to simulate defence scenarios under Arctic conditions. Joint Viking underscored the importance of interoperability and collective defence in the High North. In one scenario, a simulated drone attack in Narvik required real-time collaboration between military units, Civil Defence, municipal services, and local hospitals. In Harstad, participants rehearsed emergency response to a hazardous chemical spill following a vehicular attack, involving Norwegian People's Aid and multiple CBRN agencies.

From a civil defence standpoint, the scale of Joint Viking is significant not just for military readiness but also for total defence cooperation. Two exercises—on 11 and 12 March—focused explicitly on civil-military coordination, involving evacuation drills, public alert systems, and coordination centres for next of kin. The exercise also formed part of the broader Defender 2025 campaign, the largest US Army operation in Europe, focused on reinforcing NATO’s eastern and northern flanks.

 

The United States: Multi‑hazard exercises and federal coordination

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), now part of the Department of Homeland Security, is tasked with coordinating responses to emergencies that surpass local and state capacities. With a workforce of over 17,000 and an annual budget exceeding $33 billion, FEMA supports disaster relief efforts, provides training through its National Preparedness Directorate, and leads national-level exercises.

In February 2025, FEMA Region I collaborated with the Joint Task Force–Civil Support (JTF‑CS)—the only standing chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosives response force in the country—to conduct Sudden Response. This exercise simulated a nuclear detonation over an American city and tested how the Defence Coordinating Officer and Defence Coordinating Element from the military integrated with FEMA to process aid requests, deploy specialised assets, and maintain communications across vast geographical separations.

Additionally, Operation Red Dragon, a recurring civil defence readiness exercise conducted at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, brings together Army Reserve, National Guard and civilian agencies to practice large-scale chemical defence operations. Since its inception in 2004, the exercise has grown from 400 to over 800 personnel, focusing on coordination with fire departments, law enforcement, hospitals and humanitarian groups such as the American Red Cross.

These exercises and others highlight an “all-hazards” approach—preparing for nuclear incidents, chemical attacks, pandemics, earthquakes, cyber threats, and more. They serve multiple purposes, including validating plans, revealing capability gaps, testing interagency coordination, and strengthening relationships across military, federal, state, local, and non-governmental actors.