First edition of Naval Commanders' Conference to focus on emerging challenges in maritime domain

photo: pibarchive

The first edition of Naval Commanders’ Conference will be held in Delhi from 23 to 25 April 2019. During the conference, which is the apex forum within the Service for interaction between the Naval Commanders, the Chief of the Naval Staff, with the Commanders-in-Chief, will review major operational, material, logistics, HR, training and administrative activities undertaken during the previous six months and deliberate upon the course to be steered in the ensuing six months.

The conference assumes significance as the country's defence services have been brought under sharper focus in the backdrop of Pulwama attack and other related events. The forum will also be a platform for the naval leadership to discuss the emerging challenges in the maritime domain and fine tune the strategies for responding to the evolving geo-strategic environment. During the conference, Naval Commanders will also hold discussions with senior government officials.

Interaction with Chiefs of Indian Army and Indian Air Force during the conference would be utilised to analyse the operational environment, deliberate on Tri-Service synergy and readiness to deter and neutralise threats aimed at the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be addressing the Naval Commanders on the opening day. The themes of 'Functional Reorganisation of Indian Navy towards improving Operational Efficiency' and 'Optimal Manning' will form the core of discussions towards finalising long term road map for the Indian Navy.

Discussions have also been planned on acquisition of new capabilities, harnessing niche technologies like 'Big Data Analytics' and 'Artificial Intelligence' for solutions in the domains of naval combat, convergence of networks/ information, logistics, administration and equipment health monitoring for sustained operations.