Mumbai, December 3. Vice Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command, addressed members of the media at the Navy Day Annual Press Conference of Navy Week 2022 onboard the Indian Navy’s latest stealth guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam at Mumbai on December 3, 2022.
The Commander-in-Chief, in his opening address, spoke about the extensive deployment of ships, submarines and aircraft by the Western Naval Command (WNC) to maintain presence in all areas of maritime interest to provide security and safeguard our national interests. The C-in-C highlighted the near continuous deployment of ships and submarines on Mission Based Deployments in coastal and distant waters duly supported by extensive surveillance by manned and unmanned aircraft. He also spoke about the concerted efforts towards joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations and annual joint HADR exercises PANEX and Madad.
The Admiral spoke about the Indian Navy as a flexible instrument of national power, as ships of the WNC undertook port calls in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Oman and other ports, promoting goodwill and national support. He highlighted that on 15th August this year, the WNC ships were deployed to West Asia (Muscat, Oman), East Africa (Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania) and South America (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) to unfurl the national flag commemorating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) to celebrate 75 years of Independence.
Fielding a diverse range of questions from the media, Vice Admiral AB Singh clarified queries on coastal security, maritime security, Agniveers, SOPs to operate in extreme weather conditions, fight against drug trafficking through sea, indigenous warships production, future acquisitions, among others.
The Indian Navy celebrates Navy Day on December 4 every year, the date on which during the 1971 Indo-Pak conflict, naval ships, armed to the teeth, stealthily manoeuvred off Karachi, and unleashed a lethal missile attack that left the port ablaze and destroyed several enemy warships.
