ENC to host additional ‘Op Demo’ in Vizag next year

Visakhapatnam: The Eastern Naval Command is carrying out an additional operational demonstration on January 4, 2025 at RK Beach in Visakhapatnam. Sharing this during a media conference held in Visakhapatnam on Monday (December 2), Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, ENC Vice Admiral Rajesh Pendharkar mentioned in consonance with the government policy to celebrate respective service days of each service in various cities, the Navy Day Operational Demo this year is scheduled to be conducted off Golden Beach, Puri in Odisha on December 4. The President of India Droupadi Murmu would be the chief guest.

During the additional Op Demo slated on January 4, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is scheduled to attend as chief guest. Band concert, visits to naval ships by children and interaction with veterans form part of the Navy Week celebrations to be featured in Visakhapatnam.

Elaborating on the enhancement plans of the navy which is progressing steadily, the Vice Admiral said with regard to the Eastern Naval Command, INS Sandhayak, the first ship in the Survey Vessel (Large) Project, was commissioned on February 3 February at the Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam

Nirdeshak, the second of the four ships of the project, was delivered to the Indian Navy in October and it is scheduled to be commissioned on December 18. Also, commissioning of the first ships of the Nilgiri Class Frigates, the Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft Class, starting with Arnala, and Diving Support Vessel Class are also scheduled in the coming months.

“We would be inducting additional HALE Remotely Piloted Aircraft, which would significantly enhance our surveillance capability. The recently-inducted MH60-R helicopters have boosted our ASW capability and these helicopters would be operating from our ships at Visakhapatnam, shortly,” Vice Admiral Rajesh Pendharkar informed.

Apart from significant infrastructure development that progressed in the past year, the ENC chief stated that projects amounting to more than Rs1, 200 crore are presently in various stages of execution. Factoring the growth in assets that would be progressively based at Visakhapatnam, projects to augment berthing space in Naval Dockyard are also underway, he added.

The Indian Navy has undertaken a wide array of initiatives that focus on developing indigenous technologies and reducing dependency on foreign imports. Presently, over 75 per cent of the Indian Navy’s warships and submarines are built domestically.

Terming coastal defence and coastal security as a highly complex process, the ENC chief said a large number of agencies exceeding 50 are involved in this entire process of providing security, including ports, customs, marine police, state agencies, fisheries, Coast Guard and the navy. There are many more and each one of them has to collaborate. Intelligence agencies are also an integral part of coastal security.

“We put a lot of stress on collaboration that is why we have high-level coordination meetings at every state, every coastal state. For example, exercise Sagar Kavach is conducted twice a year in a state. We have an exercise civil too which is conducted once every 2 years, which mobilises the entire coastal security machinery of the country together,” the Vice Admiral explained.