In the backdrop of heightened tension between India and Pakistan post Pulwama incident in February this year, the Navy commanders will take stock of the operational preparedness of the force during the three-day conference here starting on Tuesday next. The top echelon will also review progress made on various issues discussed during the last such meeting held six months back. The commanders meet every six months for brainstorming and discussing matters pertaining to the service.
Giving details of the issues likely to come up during the forthcoming meeting, officials said here on Sunday the conference assumes greater significance in the backdrop of Pulwama associated events that have brought country’s defence under sharper focus and will provide the higher naval leadership a forum to discuss the emerging challenges in the maritime domain and fine tune the strategies for responding to the evolving geo-strategic environment.
The conference is the apex forum within the Service for interaction between the Naval Commanders. The Navy Chief with the Commanders-in-Chief, will review major operational, materiel, logistics, human resources, training and administrative activities undertaken during the previous six months and deliberate upon the course to be steered in the ensuing six months.
The Navy is operationally deployed as per is doctrine of mission based deployment and has further increased vigil in the strategically important Indian Ocean region besides Arabian Sea after the
Pulwama incident. Forty Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) were killed in a suicide attack on February 16. India retaliated by launching air strikes on February 26 destroying Jaish-e-Mohammad(JeM) training centre in Balakot, Pakistan.
The Pakistan Air Force hit back the next day and tried to target military installations in Rajouri sector. In the ensuing aerial battle, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman flying a MIG-21 downed a Pakistan F-16.
However, the Indian pilot’s plane was hit by Pakistan air defence and he was captured by Pakistan Army after his parachute landed in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir(POK).
He returned to India two days later. Since then the IAF has increased vigil all along the western sector facing Pakistan while the Army is alert along the Line of Control(LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir and the international borders.
Meanwhile, navy officials also said Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to address the Naval Commanders on the opening day and interact with them. The conference also serves as a platform for institutionalised interaction of Naval Commanders with senior government officials.
Interaction with Chiefs of Indian Army and Indian Air Force during the conference would be utilised to analyse the operational environment, deliberate on Tri-Service synergy and readiness to deter and neutralise threats aimed at the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The themes of ‘Functional Reorganisation of Indian Navy towards improving Operational Efficiency’ and ‘Optimal Manning’ will form the core of discussions towards finalising long term road map for the serviced.
Discussions are planned on acquisition of new capabilities, harnessing niche technologies like ‘Big Data Analytics’ and ‘Artificial Intelligence’ for solutions in the domains of naval combat, convergence of networks and information, logistics, administration and equipment health monitoring for sustained operations.
In keeping with the expectation of the Indian Navy being the net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR) and first responder to any crisis, the forum will also deliberate upon the lessons learnt from the recently concluded humanitarian and disaster response operations by the Navy and various other maritime security initiatives, they said.
