Shortfall of personnel, both officers and men, has not affected the Navy’s operational efficiency and preparedness.
However, it will be made up for in the next few years by increasing the intake capacity of training institutions, Vice Admiral A.R. Karve, Flag Officer Commanding in Chief of the Southern Naval Command, the force’s training command, has said.
The Navy continued to maintain operational readiness despite the shortfall and measures had been in place to address concerns arising from it, he told the media on board training vessel INS Tir ahead of Navy Day on December 4.
Many applications
Asked if there was high attrition among officers in the Navy in the wake of allegations of the Services getting a raw deal in the Seventh Pay Commission, he said the fact was to the contrary and that the force received a deluge of applications in response to employment notices. The figures pertaining to premature retirement kept changing each year but issues relating to the Pay Commission had been taken up at the highest level and were under examination, he said.
With the construction of the purpose-built cadet training vessels at the ABG Shipyard having run aground, afloat training to cadets continued to be provided using old ships part of the First Training Squadron led by INS Tir and comprising naval and coast guard vessels including sail training ships. The matter had been taken up with the naval headquarters, he said.
The Vice Admiral spoke of the Navy’s efforts since the 1960s to build ships indigenously in a bid to become a builder’s Navy and said the force had covered quite a distance in indigenising, to varying degrees, the ‘float, move and fight’ components of warships made in India. All of the Navy’s 42 future platforms, ships and submarines, were getting ready at Indian shipyards.
Across the channel from the South Jetty where Tir remained berthed, the Cochin Shipyard was building the first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, directly monitored by the Naval Headquarters and the Ministry of Defence.
The Vice Admiral remarked that the current issues over the timeline of Vikrant’s construction remained ‘very much live and changing by the week,’ declining to make further comments on the same.
He said the command’s plan to upgrade the Naval Ship Repair Yard (Kochi) and construct a dry-dock under it for repair of naval ships remained active.
The command will conduct an operational demonstration at the waterfront facing Rajendra Maidan on December 11 and 12 which will see the participation of the latest stealth destroyer INS Chennai.
