Navy officers to meet to review operational preparedness

Amid the ongoing tension on the borders with China, the Indian Navy's top brass will hold a three-day meeting here from today to review the force's operational preparedness and deliberate upon the course to be steered in the future.

The Navy said that the Naval Commanders' Conference 2020 is scheduled to be held August 19-21. The conference is the apex level event for interaction between the top naval commanders.

India Navy chief, Admiral Karambir Singh, with the chiefs of the naval commands and other top officers, will have deliberations on the course ahead, as well as material, logistics, human resources, training, and administrative activities undertaken during the year.

The Conference assumes greater significance as it comes against the backdrop of recent events on the northern borders, coupled with the unprecedented challenges posed by Covid-19 and would provide the higher naval leadership "a forum to discuss the conduct of operations, sustenance, and maintenance of assets, procurement issues, infrastructure development, human resource management, etc within the ambit of the new normal established by the pandemic", the Navy said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to address the Naval Commanders on an opening day and interact with them. The conference is also a forum for the interaction of naval commanders with other senior government officials.

As this is the first Naval Commanders' Conference since the institution of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), the conference would discuss ways to optimize joint planning structures, tri-service synergy, and operational readiness, as also functional reorganization within the navy to improve efficiency.

In keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR), the top naval officials would also undertake deliberations upon the larger security imperatives in the Indo-Pacific region..