After Pulwama, Navy to discuss new challenges

New Delhi: For the first time after the Pulwama attack, top Indian Naval officers will be meeting on Tuesday to discuss the emerging challenges in the maritime domain and fine tune the strategies for responding to the evolving geo-strategic environment.

The Indian Navy has been fully deployed after the pre-emptive air strikes by the Indian Air Force on terror camp at Balakot in Pakistan and is on high alert.

The first edition of Naval Commanders’ Conference of 2019 is scheduled from 23 to 25 April 2019. The conference is the apex forum within the service for interaction between the Naval Commanders.

The Chief of the Naval Staff, with the commanders-in-chief, will review major operational, material, logistics, and training undertaken during the previous six months and deliberate upon the course to be steered in the ensuing six months. “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,” said Captain D.K. Sharma, spokesperson, the Indian Navy.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharama 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 Army and Air Force during 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....,” said Captain Sharma.

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 Indian Navy.

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/ information, logistics, administration and equipment health monitoring for sustained operations.