Admiral Hari Kumar becomes the 25th Chief of the Naval Staff. On Tuesday (November 30, 2021), he took over from Admiral Karambir Singh. The outgoing Chief Admiral Karambir Singh superannuated after a career spanning over 41 years in service and he was the Chief of the Naval Staff for 30 months.
The new chief comes in at a time when the Indian Navy is in the process of revising its 15-year Maritime Capability Perspective Plan. This plan is expected to be ready by the first quarter of 2022 and will be aligned with the 10-year Integrated Capability Development Plan which is being presently formulated by the Department of Military Affairs (DMA).
More about the new chief
Earlier this month he was announced as the next chief of the Naval Staff. He was serving as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) Western Naval Command. A gunner specialist, he is the fourth Navy Chief who commanded INS Ranvir, a Rajput class guided missile destroyer.
An advocate for Integrated Theatre Command, he has played a very important role in drawing up the concept as the Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff.
He is the first Navy Chief who hails from Kerala and he has commanded the aircraft carrier INS Viraat and other surface vessels. Born in 1962, the new chief is a graduate from National Defence academy and was commissioned into the Indian Navy on January 1, 1983,
Modernisation & Challenges
Challenge One: The new chief will have to tackle the problems related to Project 75 (I) which has run into a problem as some vendors who had received the RfP have withdrawn from the race. This was the first project under the Strategic Partnership (SP) model for the Indian Navy. The new conventional submarines are expected to be equipped with the Air Independent Propulsion System (AIP). And the vendors were required to offer functional AIP.
What does this mean for the Indian Navy?
It means that during the tenure of the former Chief, almost three years were taken before an RfP was issued. And citing issues related to the RfP most of the OEM contenders have withdrawn.
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