In a first, woman officer assumes command of an Indian Navy ship

mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Dec 02, 2023: The Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral R Hari Kumar, said on Friday that the Navy has appointed its first woman commanding officer on a naval ship.

Addressing a press conference ahead of Navy Day, Admiral Kumar said the implementation of the Agnipath scheme has been a much-needed, transformational change.

 

"Our first batch of Agniveers graduated from the premier-winning establishment, INS Chilka, in March this year. And importantly, this batch of Agniveers includes 272 female Agniveer trainees as well," Admiral Kumar said.

"Going further, the second batch of Agniveers had a total of 454 women and I want to say that with the third batch, which has just been inducted, we have now crossed over 1,000 women affiliates in the Navy," he added.

The Chief of Naval Staff asserted that these statistics stand testament to the Navy’s philosophy of all roles and all ranks with regard to the deployment of women in the service, both for officers and for personnel below the rank of officer.

"We also appointed the first woman commanding officer of an Indian naval ship. It has been our effort to constantly challenge the status quo to ensure that the navy remains on an aspirational and dynamic trajectory in the future," Admiral Kumar noted.

"Have a look at the year gone by, and you would agree that 2023 has been a remarkable year for our nation. We have left a mark across various sectors and spheres, be it the economic front, diplomacy, or the sports arena," the Admiral said.

"Similarly, for the navy too, the last year has been remarkable. In this period, our ships, submarines and aircraft have sustained a high operation tempo, undertaking missions and tasks encompassing military, diplomatic and constabulary roles," he added.

’SHIPS PERSISTENTLY PRESENT ACROSS INDO-PACIFIC’

The Navy chief further said, "Indian units are mission-deployed across the Indian Ocean region and beyond, to protect and promote the national interest, so these extensive deployments, coupled with the equally large number of exercises at sea, have really helped the Indian Navy and, as a result, the Indian Navy has remained a combat-ready, credible, cohesive, and future-proof force, enabled by what we call our ship’s first outlook, where every single action that we take is aimed to enable our women and men in the operational units to perform that duty very well."

The admiral said, "Our ships have been persistently present across the Indo-Pacific region. Submarines have undertaken operational turnarounds at foreign ports in Oman, Australia, and Indonesia."

"In the data-level operational readiness exercise in January and February this year, over 151 operational units took part in the exercise, which spanned an area of over 21 million square nautical miles," he added. He also highlighted the twin carrier operations that involved both of the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers, Vikrant and Vikramaditya.

During his speech, the Chief of Naval Staff further stated that among the operational achievements of the Indian Navy, nothing could be more reassuring than the maiden take-off of LCA Navy and the MiG29K onboard Vikrant in February this year. This reaffirms that the Indian Navy is on the right track in fostering ’Aatma Nirbharta’ in the defence sector.

The Chief of Naval Staff further said that in driving self-reliance and technology development, the Indian Navy is well established on a path of budget optimisation, with the capital budget crossing the Rs 50,000 core mark, a 26 per cent hike in the revenue budget.

Courtesy: India Today