Thrilling outing for schoolchildren

Seven ships of the Eastern Naval Command and a submarine participate in the exercise

Over 900 schoolchildren and staff, 500 defence civilian personnel, 25 senior citizens and Veteran Sailors' Federation members sailed onboard the Eastern Fleet Ships on Tuesday and witnessed various Naval exercises at sea.

Seven ships of the Eastern Naval Command including the Stealth Frigate INS Shivalik, Kashin Class Destroyers INS Ranvir and INS Ranvijay, Fleet Tanker INS Jyoti, Missile Corvettes INS Kirch, INS Kora and INS Vinash, and a submarine participated in the ‘Day-at-Sea' as part of Navy Week activities.

The Navy Week celebrations will culminate on December 4 which is celebrated as Navy Day to commemorate the daring attack on Karachi by its missile boats in 1971. The day began with the distribution of prizes to the children winning the Navy Week Painting Competition Pratibimb-11, held on November 6 at the Swarna Bharati Indoor Stadium. Commanding Officer of INS Shivalik Rajesh Pendharkar gave away the prizes onboard the ship. DAV Public School, Anakapalle, was adjudged the best and awarded the rolling trophy.

The top five entrants in each category were felicitated. The winning entries were that of Gabriel, Kiran Chand and K Rahul Ranjan in the Sub-junior, Junior and Senior categories respectively. In the special and hearing impaired children categories, Y.C. Santosh Reddy and E Naveen Raj secured the first positions respectively.

The highlights of the Day-at-Sea exercises were the high speed run by the missile corvettes, search-and-rescue demonstration, anti-submarine operations by helicopters, high speed manoeuvres by Corvettes, close range anti-aircraft firing, underway replenishment involving transfer of men and material by jackstay and a fly past.

Eastern Fleet is the cutting edge of the Eastern Naval Command consisting of 28 ships equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and modern weapon delivery systems. Besides responding promptly and professionally to the challenges of the security environment, the fleet has responded to natural calamities like floods, earthquakes within and outside the country.