With the Navy steadily inducting state-of-the-art platforms and equipment at phenomenal costs, the force was continuously refining its training curriculum and methodology so as to keep pace with the latest technology as also to psych up its manpower for optimum utilisation of future inductions as well, said Vice Admiral S.P.S. Cheema, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Naval Command, the Navy’s training command.
“Whatever taught in training schools have to be in sync with the latest technology and whatever that’s likely to come in future,” said the Vice-Admiral, who has the rare distinction of heading three major commands, in an interview with The Hindu , his first after taking over as chief of the Southern Naval Command.
The Vice-Admiral said his tenures at the helm of tri-services Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee; and the Strategic Forced Command made him wiser on the way the other two services operated.
He would be banking on experience gained during instructional tenures at the Southern Naval Command and at sea commanding frontline warships, including the aircraft carrier INS Viraat and the western fleet, to ensure that training durations of officers and sailors are optimally utilised. Hinting at the spate of recent accidents that put the Navy in poor light, he said the “incidents have been well-analysed, the findings promulgated across the Navy and corrective steps taken”.
“The Chief of the Naval Staff has had extensive discussions with his Commanders-in-Chiefs wherein he emphasized the need for absolute quality training where standard operating procedures are strictly followed. My endeavor would be to ensure that, as the quality of training impacts on the professional competence of the men in the field.”
The Vice-Admiral said India could not really afford to invest sizeable manpower in training alone. “So people have to be turned around very fast with zero compromise on knowledge and skill levels.”
To this end, the Navy put in place a system of simulator-based training and interlinked theory with practice. There was on-job training, too, with personnel trained on equipment and platforms before being made responsible for maintaining and exploiting them.
That the Indian Navy was a three-dimensional force with experience across the entire spectrum of maritime operations was a fact respected by other nations, he said. “This is why we have a large number of foreign trainees in our training establishments. By the year-end, we will have foreign trainees at the Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala as well.”
“It helps build bridges of friendship and earns us respect as a professional force. People who have trained with us are our ambassadors and when they rise to higher ranks, they definitely like to send their future generations to train with us.”
