INS Vikrant to join Eastern Navy Visakhapatnam in 2022: Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain

Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, Chief of the Eastern Naval Staff, said that this was the right time to acquire indigenous knowledge and move forward. He told the media on Thursday that the three main forces under Atma Nirbhar Bharat were the main beneficiaries.

He said the public, private and MSMs need to work towards the needs of the defence sector. He noted that maritime transport was crucial in the achievement of the $5 trillion economy and that the defence oversight system needed to be further strengthened accordingly.

He emphasised on the importance of providing aircraft carriers, long-range ships and new clear submarines to meet the challenges. He said that the focus is mainly on domain awareness. Vikrant Aircraft career under construction has been revealed to be delayed due to covid. MR Atul also opined that Vikrant is likely to complete the trail run in 2021 and could join the Eastern Navy by 2022.

He made it clear that he was not neglecting how many people were in the honey trap. He said that they were committing honey trap with fake Facebook accounts from Pakistan hence decided to ban mobile phones from onboard ships. He asserted that only young sailors were yielded to honey.