Visakhapatnam: Rear Admiral Rajesh Dhankhar takes over command of Eastern Fleet

Visakhapatnam: Rear Admiral Rajesh Dhankhar took over command of the Eastern Fleet, the Sword Arm of the Eastern Naval Command, from Rear Admiral Gurcharan Singh.

Rear Admiral Rajesh Dhankhar was commissioned into the Indian Navy on July 1, 1990 and is a specialist in navigation and direction. The Flag Officer is an alumnus of the Naval Academy, Defence Services Staff College and has done his higher command course in Japan. During his illustrious career spanning 33 years, the Flag Officer has tenanted specialist appointments onboard warships Pondicherry, Godavari, Kora and Mysore. The officer has also done instructional tenures in the erstwhile Project 15 Training Team, Navigation and Direction School and at Officer’s Cadet School, Singapore. His command appointments include Executive Officer onboard INS Delhi, and Commanding Officer onboard INS Gharial, Mumbai and Vikramaditya.

The Flag Officer is a recipient of the Nao Sena Medal (Gallantry) in 2015 for Non Combatant Evacuation Operations (NEO) of Indian nationals from Aden and Al-Hodeida, Yemen.

Over the past 11 months, the Eastern Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral Gurcharan Singh has maintained a very high level of combat readiness and operational tempo and participated in various mission-based and operational deployments and several bilateral and multilateral engagements with friendly foreign navies.