The first edition of this years’ bi-annual Naval Commanders’ Conference which commenced on 23 Apr 19, concluded on 25 Apr 19 after three days of fruitful deliberations. The Hon’ble RM addressed Naval Commanders on 23 Apr 19 and complimented the Indian Navy for maintaining a high operational tempo and its ability to not only safeguard India’s interest in the maritime domain but also coerce an adversary into submission as was evident during the recent standoff. She appreciated Navy’s efforts in the area of indigenisation, self-reliance and support to the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government. She expressed happiness at the numerous initiatives taken to achieve ‘Digital Navy’ vision in line with the Government’s ‘Digital India Programme’.
During the interaction, the Hon’ble RM reviewed the combat readiness, pace of modernisation and progress of various acquisition and infrastructure related cases. While praising the Indian Navy’s foreign cooperation efforts to support the Navies in the region, she urged the Naval Commanders to optimally utilise available resources to build a strong Navy that is ready and vigilant to counter any challenge that may emerge in the maritime domain.
Chairing the conference, the Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba addressed the Commanders on various important issues pertaining to operational readiness, capability enhancement, maintenance, op logistics, infrastructure development and human resource management.
Functional Reorganisation of Indian Navy towards improving Operational efficiency’ and ‘Optimal Manning’ formed the core of discussions towards finalising the long term road map of the Navy. In keeping with the Navy’s ethos of harnessing niche technologies, concrete plans to incorporate ‘Big Data Analytics’ and ‘Artificial Intelligence’ for solutions in the domains of naval combat, convergence of networks/ information, logistics, administration and equipment health monitoring for sustained operation were also discussed.
The Indian Navy’s sustained prominence as the first responder for HADR and its role as the Net Security Provider in the IOR were reviewed by the Commanders. The Navy’s partnering with many Friendly Foreign Countries for developing comprehensive Maritime Domain Awareness, undertaking concrete steps such as 10thIONS anniversary celebrations at Kochi, concluding numerous defence cooperation agreements related to logistics, training and operations, which are a testimony to its primacy in the sphere of defence diplomacy in the wider Indo Pacific region and beyond were also reviewed during the conference.
The next edition of Naval Commanders’ Conference is scheduled in Oct/ Nov later this year.