The Changing Tides of International Maritime Security: The BRICS Naval Construct and Exercise MILAN 2026.

            

The oceans of the world have traditionally been the ultimate global commons- a massive web in which trade, diplomacy and deterrence are flowing freely. However, by 2026 the maritime space is facing a radical change. The phase of unrestricted and unipolar naval superiority is breaking and it is giving place to the convoluted multipolar reality through new strategic alliances, weaponization of economic sanctions and swift development in naval technology.

            This change can be seen in two significant events at the beginning of 2026. The Will for Peace 2026 exercises have led Russia to demand its own BRICS maritime security system. In the meantime Exercise MILAN 2026 is being conducted in the Bay of Bengal, and it illustrates how great powers and local navies are adjusting to a conflict at sea.

Push: BRICS Will for Peace 2026 and a Multipolar Ocean.  

            In January 2026, the world order had moved off the Western Cape of South Africa, when the naval drills, named Will for Peace 2026, happened. South African, Russian, Chinese, Iranian and the United Arab Emirates naval forces united in a more than a routine demonstration of seamanship drill. It provided evidence of the shift of the BRICS Plus coalition towards a security-oriented alliance instead of being an economic and developmental one.  

            The message was clear. Once the United States had confiscated a Russian-flagged oil tanker as part of sanctions in response to Venezuela, Russia took the opportunity to exploit the fears of the Global South. Nikolay Patrushev, the chairman of the Russian Maritime Board and a close advisor to the president encouraged the BRICS nations to establish a complete-fledged strategic dimension in the sea.    

            Patrushev described the project as a retaliation to what Moscow termed Western piracy and against NATO illegal maritime blockades of the Baltic and the Arctic. He claimed that the present world maritime security system, which has mostly been developed by the Western coalitions like the Combined Task Force150, cannot be relied upon to remain neutral any longer. BRICS energy exporters are extremely vulnerable when insurance markets, payment systems and chokepoints are weaponized to impose unilateral sanctions.  

            Although BRICS is not developing a treaty-bound military system, such as NATO, the drive to have an independent maritime system is a viable measure to protect itself. The members intend to discourage interdictions and gain control over the international sea lanes in their own terms through the coordination of naval presence, protection of alternative trade routes and construction of common defense systems.

Geopolitics of Chokepoints at Sea.  

                    In order to understand why the BRICS naval drive is so urgent, we have to take into consideration the geography of global trade. Approximately, 80% and 90% of all the international trade is transferred by sea. The security of the energy relies on tankers that have to go through the narrow chokepoints that are easily contested: the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab ※ Mandeb, the Suez Canal and the Malacca Strait.    

                        Recent three-way exercises of Russia, China and Iran, including the Maritime Security Belt 2026 were directed to the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. The presence of superior Chinese Type 052DL guided -missile destroyers and Russian frigates in these waters is an indicator of the conclusion of a time when Western carrier strike forces could strike without impunity.  

                        This shift in power is problematic in the global supply chain. When rival naval alliances are in operation with competing or conflicting mandates within such strategic paths, the tension may skyrocket maritime insurance costs. The massive shipping firms may even neglect the Suez Canal and use the more distant and more expensive path around the Cape of Good Hope consuming expenses to the global population.

Military drill MILAN 2026: Indo-Pacific Forging Partnerships.  

            As BRICS pursues another security architecture, one of the largest deliberate demonstrations of multilateral interoperability of naval forces has ever taken place in the Indo-Pacific: Exercise MILAN 2026.

            This is a huge allied and friendly ministerial exercise held in the bay of Bengal off Visakhapatnam, India, which has brought dozens of allied and friendly navies together. Compared to the politically colored message of the BRICS exercises, MILAN 2026 is focused on the mechanics of operations, stability, and trust building in the region involving various maritime forces.

            The sea stage of MILAN 2026 presents a new modern multi-domain operations. F fleets involved in such activities conduct intricate anti- submarine warfare pursuit, anti-air defence exercises and complicated cross- deck helicopter tasks. This is aimed at smooth interoperability, in a regional crisis, natural disaster or hostile blockade, a coalition of navies should be able to merge their command and control structures immediately, exchange intelligence, and act as a single force.

Plans to combat Non-traditional maritime security threats.  

                    Although carrier planes and guided-missile destroyers are the stars of the headlines, the day-to-day activities of regional navies, in particular those related to securing the South Asia and the Indian Ocean, are far otherwise. The actual worth of such exercises as MILAN 2026 consists in training forces to respond to an unstopping stream of non-traditional maritime threats.

                    To the regional maritime forces, the worst case scenario is state-on-state naval combat. As a matter of fact, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and contraband weapons are part of day-to-day cases. Navies have to continuously reform the strategies to be used to patrol the large exclusive economic zones against complex transnational criminal cartels that employ dark-shipping, spoofed AIS and semi-submersible ships.

                    The problem of illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing has already become a serious security challenge as opposed to being an environmental problem. Big, state-subsidized distant-water fleets regularly enter the sovereign waters of smaller countries, robbing them of resources and destabilizing the economy of coastal populations. Addressing these threats requires a fundamental change of the maritime strategy - not only due to its purely kinetic orientation, but also due to the awareness of the maritime domain, strong intelligence exchange with regional coast guards, and deep inter-agency coordination.

Responses by Technology and Future Fleet.

            Conventional warships need to be costly to construct, maintain and put into use. Navies are fast embracing emerging technologies with an aim of effectively policing the more non-tradition threats. By 2026, it is no longer the steel hulls and sailors that are patrolling the seas.

            It is also seen in recent strategic memorandums between Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific powers to collaboratively evolve Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) and hybrid naval platforms by the use of technology. The dominant platforms of persistent maritime surveillance are the autonomous aerial and surface drones. With AI-powered analytics, such unmanned systems will be able to take weeks of wasting time as they fly around the shipping suspects, oil spills, and guide manned interceptors to the smuggling ships with unprecedented accuracy.

            The concept of cyber security has become an inseparable component of war on the sea. With the digitization of the port infrastructure and the ship-board navigation systems there is a significant vulnerability of hackers breaking into the terminal operating systems or disrupting GPS signals in the busy straits. Electronic warfare and cyber-defense are regularly employed in modern naval exercises because it has been noted that the next significant war can begin with a cut to an underwater data cable, not a launched missile.

Conclusion: Finding a Way through a Fragmented Future.

            This simultaneous implementation of the BRICS naval framework initiatives and Exercise MILAN 2026 depict a graphic image of strategic transition. The single, unified state of the maritime order is becoming a fragmented reality of competing security architecture.

            To the world superpowers, oceans are becoming more and more a chessboard to play their strategic denial and economic statecraft. However, to middle powers of the region the dilemma is much more complex. They are forced to find a solution to the geopolitical tensions between Washington, Beijing, and Moscow, and also modernize their ships to respond to the daily non-traditional threats to the sea.

            Conclusively, the 21 st century will not determine international sea route security on the basis of which country has the biggest single navy. It will be under the control of the ones who will be able to construct the most resiliency coalitions, utilize the most advanced autonomous technology and revise designs to
safeguard military and economic lifelines of the multipolar ocean.

@WikiyMedia