NEW DELHI, Dec 1: The Indian Navy has appointed the first woman commanding officer in a naval ship in sync with its philosophy of ‘all roles-all ranks’ for female personnel, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Friday.
Addressing a press conference ahead of Navy Day, Admiral Kumar said “The overall strength of women Agniveers has now crossed the 1,000 mark. These statistics stands testament to our philosophy of ‘all roles, all ranks’ approach to deployment of women in the service.” He also said the Indian Navy was fully committed to jointness and cohesiveness.
Admiral Kumar said the Indian Navy’s ships, submarines, and aircraft have sustained a high operational tempo in the strategic waters in the last one year. “Our ships, submarines, and aircraft have sustained a high operational tempo – undertaking missions and tasks encompassing military, diplomatic, constabulary and benign roles,” he said.
On China’s increasing forays into the Indian Ocean, he said Indian Navy monitors all activities in the region. “Our units were mission deployed across the Indian Ocean Region and beyond, to protect and promote our national interests,” he said.
The Navy has “remained a ‘Combat-ready, Credible, Cohesive, and Future Proof’ force enabled by what we call our ‘ships first’ outlook where every single action that we take is aimed to enable our women and men in operational units to perform their duties very well.” On the operational front, the Navy’s sheer footprint of deployments has been satisfying as its ships have been persistently present across the Indo Pacific, he said.
(Manas Dasgupta)