Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla has been appointed as the next Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) of the Southern Naval Command (SNC).
He is presently the Chief of Personnel at the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (Navy) in New Delhi. He will take over the charge from Vice Admiral A.R. Karve, who will be superannuating on July 31.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Vice Admiral Chawla was commissioned in the Navy on January 1, 1982. He is a Navigation and Direction specialist who has commanded five ships including the now decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Viraat . His important staff appointments ashore include instructor at National Defence Academy and Senior Instructor (Navy) at Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Ooty.
He had worked as Defence Attaché in the Embassy of India at Jakarta, Indonesia, where he was instrumental in the signing of the India-Indonesia Defence Agreement in Feb 2001.
He has also been the Flag Officer Commanding, Western Fleet. As Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy and Plans), he was responsible for the formulation of the Maritime Capability Perspective Plan 2012-27 and the first Maritime Infrastructure Perspective Plan for the navy besides envisaging the process for IN-DRDO Synergy, which has now been institutionalised.
Vice Admiral Chawla, as the Director General of Naval Operations, oversaw Op-Rahat, which involved the evacuation of Indian as well as foreign nationals from war-torn Yemen in April 2015.
He is a graduate of the Royal Naval Staff College, U.K., and the College of Naval Warfare, and the National Defence College, New Delhi.
He was awarded the Nausena Medal in 2003 for his performance during Op-Parakram, Vishisht Sena Medal and Ati-Vishisht Seva Medal in 2013 for his distinguished service.
