Increasing maritime presence in the strategically important Indian Ocean region in the backdrop of China’s growing prowess and a push to improve operational capabilities beyond the immediate neighbourhood figured prominently during the four-day Navy Commanders’ conference which ended here on Friday.
The Naval top brass reviewed major operations, training and administrative activities undertaken in the last six months. The conference is held twice a year to analyse the performance of the force. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman interacted with the Commanders and reviewed the combat readiness of the Navy, pace of modernisation and progress of various acquisition and infrastructure related cases.
She complimented the Navy for maintaining a high operational tempo, ensuring the maritime security of the country and sustained efforts in support of the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives of the government. The minister said it was a matter of pride that all 34 warships presently under construction were being built indigenously.
Chairing the conference, Navy chief Admiral Sunil lanba focused on four key areas including combat capability and role worthiness, ensuring primacy of core professional taska, develop a motivated, trained and committed team and increase familiarity and comfort in the Navy’s maritime areas of interest.
As part of the annual theme, the Commanders brainstormed to fine tune the execution of ‘mission based deployment’ involving ships, aircraft and submarines beyond the immediate neighbourhood for providing sustained presence in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR). The Commanders resolved to focus efforts on the Navy’s ability to deploy and sustain in tandem with the new mission-based deployment concept, which would result in greater presence and visibility in IOR.
Critical enablers such as refits and maintenance philosophy, operational logistics and human resource measures for sustained operational effectiveness were also discussed in detail. Approval of a new transition cycle for ships from maintenance periods to operational deployments that allowed for a focused and gradual transition of ships from periods of maintenance layoffs to full scale operations was one of the milestones achieved during the conference.
The Commanders also had an opportunity to interact with the Chiefs of the Indian Army and IAF. The Service Chiefs brought out the complexities in current security situation where the spectrum of threats ranged from possible conventional conflict to inimical actions by state and non-state sponsored terrorists and elements and natural disasters and calamities. The Service Chiefs elaborated their vision and the path being charted by the respective Services towards operational readiness and actions in progress towards improving tri-Service cooperation.
Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant also interacted with the Commanders and gave his perspective on ‘Make in India’ with specific reference to building a vibrant defence industrial base, which would be pivotal in spurring the manufacturing sector growth and make India an export oriented economy. Kant also stressed the importance of demand aggregation digitising legacy processes.