Indian Navy reviews refit of ships, submarines, infrastructure

Visakhapatnam: The Eastern Naval Command (ENC) headquarters conducted a two-day annual refit conference (ARC) and annual infrastructure and indigenisation conference (AIIC). Held under the chairmanship of Chief of Materiel, integrated headquarters Ministry of Defence (Navy) Vice Admiral Sandeep Naithani, the conference focused on reviewing the refit plans, operational availability of ships, submarines of the Indian Navy and discussing plans for augmentation of infrastructure to meet growing requirements of the Indian Navy.

Vice Admiral Naithani lauded the progress made on maintenance and sustenance aspects of the machinery, hull, weapons and sensors of the naval platforms. He urged the technical fraternity to remain focused on the challenges faced and use advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, quantum computation, 5G for IoT, robotics, etc., in order to ensure enhanced operational availability of ships and submarines.

Further, he highlighted the growing role of the Indian Navy and the extended deployment of ships away from the base port which calls for greater reliance on repair authorities to deliver quality output. The progress of various technical and marine infrastructure projects was reviewed by the Chief of Materiel. He expressed satisfaction over the pace of the ongoing technical infrastructure projects aimed at augmentation of repair and refitting facilities.

Further, various marine infrastructure projects, including creation of additional berthing space for future platforms planned to be inducted over the next 15 years were reviewed during the meeting. An exclusive session on indigenisation was also conducted during the conference, in line with the Government of India's initiative of Atmanirbhar Bharat. The conference was attended by delegates from the naval headquarters, the three naval commands, the tri-services Andaman and Nicobar Command, Director General naval projects, naval dockyards, repair yards and material organisations of the Indian Navy.