New Indian Navy Commands in Gujarat and Maharashtra

The Indian Navy has carved out a separate command dealing exclusively with the 1,214 km Gujarat coast and will station four warships at the newly set up base INS Sardar Patel in Porbandar. Until now, the Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval area had been under one command under a FOMAG (Flag Officer Maharashtra and Gujarat Area) and has now been divided under Flag Officers of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The division of the Naval areas took place on 21 October 2015, as Rear Admiral Satish Namdeo Ghormade, assumed charge as Flag Officer Maharashtra Area. Rear Admiral Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar will officiate as Flag Officer Gujarat Area and will be stationed at Ahmedabad while the Naval Officer in charge for operations will be based in Porbandar.

‘Defence of Gujarat’ exercise conducted

The Western Naval Command’s annual operational ‘Defence of Gujarat Exercise’ (DGX) was conducted in the first week of November “to test operational readiness of the littorals of Gujarat and Maharashtra.” The aim of the exercise was to practice combat manoeuvres to defend coastal areas as well as vital offshore assets such as oil refineries from a potential threat.

Over 30 warships, including frontline destroyers, stealth frigates and submarines, as well as a number of fighters, maritime patrol aircraft, helicopters and drones took part in the intensive manoeuvres that extended all along the coasts of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Maritime strike Jaguars and Su-30MKIs of the IAF also took part in the exercise, firing PGMs and other ordnance at simulated targets.

Brahmos test-fired from INS

OKochi

n 1 November 2015 a BrahMos cruise missile was testfired from the second Kolkata- class destroyer, INS Kochi, successfully hitting a decommissioned target ship ( Pondicherry- class minesweeper INS Alleppey) in the Arabian Sea. The test was part of acceptance drills conducted off the west coast. Two similar test firings were carried out in June 2014 and February 2015 from INS Kolkata.

INS

IAstradharini

commissioned

NS Astradharini, an indigenously-built Torpedo Launch and Recovery Vessel, was commissioned into the Navy on 6 October 2015 by Vice Admiral Satish Soni, FOC-in-C Eastern Naval Command, at Visakhapatnam.

The design of Astradharini was a collaborative effort between NSTL, Shoft Shipyard and IIT Kharagpur, which has a unique catamaran hull form that significantly reduces power requirements. Built with indigenous steel, the vessel has a length of 50 m and is capable of speeds up to 15 knots. It can operate at high sea states and has a large deck area for deploying and recovering various kinds of torpedoes.

INS Astradharini will be used to carry out technical trials of underwater weapons and systems developed by NSTL, a naval systems laboratory of DRDO. It is an advanced replacement for INS Astravahini, which was decommissioned on 17 July 2015.

Naval Commanders’ Conference

The biannual Naval Commanders’ Conference 2015 took place in New Delhi from 26 October, to discuss issues of operational relevance, identify capability gaps and to review the future plans of the Navy, and was inaugurated by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who also interacted with Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral RK Dhowan, Commanders-in-Chief of various Naval Commands and other Navy commanders.

Parrikar emphasised the need for continuous readiness to respond to contingencies in India’s area of interest and took note of the numerous long-range deployments, from the South China Sea and Sea of Japan in the East to the Persian Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean in the West, expressing “satisfaction at the high operational tempo maintained by the Indian Navy.” He also appreciated the Navy’s proactive anti-piracy operations off the Gulf of Aden, which recently resulted in a decision by CGPCS (the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia) to shift the eastern limit of the High Risk Area from 78 degrees East to 65 degrees East, further away