Navy Chief stresses on combat capability as Commanders’ Conference concludes

New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS) The four-day long Naval Commanders' Conference concluded here on Friday, with Navy Chief Sunil Lanba stressing on maintaining focus on combat capability.

The conference saw the senior leadership of Navy review major operations, training and administrative activities undertaken in the last six months.

Chairing the conference, Admiral Lanba told his top commanders to focus on combat capability and role-worthiness.

He also asked them to ensure primacy of core professional tasks, developing a motivated, trained and committed team and increasing familiarity and comfort in Indian Navy's maritime areas of interest.

Sharing his views on the current security scenario, he emphasized on the need for the Indian Navy to remain outcome oriented in all endeavours, both at sea and ashore.

The Commanders, during the conference, also interacted with the army and air force chiefs, who spoke on the complexities in current security situation, citing a spectrum of threats ranging from possible conventional conflict to inimical actions by state and non-state sponsored terrorists, as well as natural disasters and calamities.

They also elaborated their vision and the path being charted by the respective services towards operational readiness and actions in progress towards improving tri-Service cooperation.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman meanwhile reviewed the combat readiness of the Navy, pace of modernisation and progress of various acquisition and infrastructure related cases.

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant also interacted with the Commanders and gave his perspective on 'Make in India' with specific reference to building a vibrant defence industrial base, which would be pivotal in spurring the manufacturing sector growth and make India an export oriented economy.

As part of the annual theme, the Commanders brainstormed to fine tune the execution of 'mission based deployment' involving ships, aircraft and submarines beyond the immediate neighbourhood for providing sustained presence in the Indian Ocean Region.

Critical enablers such as refits and maintenance philosophy, op-logistics and human resource measures for sustained operational effectiveness were also discussed in detail.

An official statement said approval of a new Transition cycle for ships from maintenance periods to operational deployments that allowed for a focussed and gradual transition of ships from periods of maintenance layoffs to full scale operations was one of the milestones achieved during the conference.

The Commanders resolved to focus efforts on the Navy's ability to deploy and sustain in tandem with the new Mission-based deployment concept, which would result in greater presence and visibility in IOR.

In his closing address, Lanba emphasised the need to optimise efforts, exploit the potential of each and every personnel, encourage innovative thinking and harness available technology.

He also urged the Commanders to put in concerted efforts to realise the ;way ahead' arrived at during the deliberations on various agenda points and exhorted the Commanders to keep an unwavering focus on combat readiness at all times.