Western Naval Command

The Western Naval Command is one of the three command–level formations of the Indian Navy.^[1] It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. As the senior–most of the three formations,^[2] the command is responsible for the all naval forces in the Arabian Sea and western parts of the Indian Ocean and the naval establishments on the west coast of India.

Western Naval Command
Crest of the Western Naval Command
Country	India
Branch	Indian Navy
Type	Command
Headquarters	Mumbai, Maharashtra
Commanders
FOC-in-C	Vice Admiral Sanjay Jasjit Singh, AVSM, NM
FOCWF	Rear Admiral C. R. Praveen Nair, NM
FOMA	Rear Admiral Manish Chadha, VSM

The Command was formed on 1 March 1968.^[3] The Command is commanded by a Three Star Flag Officer of the rank of Vice Admiral with the title Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Command (FOC-in-C). Vice Admiral Sanjay Jasjit Singh is the current FOC-in-C WNC, who took over on 3 January 2024.^[4]

History

After the independence and the partition of India on 15 August 1947, the ships and personnel of the Royal Indian Navy were divided between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The division of the ships was on the basis of two-thirds of the fleet to India, one third to Pakistan.^[5] Two new appointments were created, the Rear Admiral Commanding Indian Naval Squadron (RACINS), the commander of the surface fleet of the Navy, and the Commodore-in-Charge Bombay, a one-star officer who headed the shore establishments on the western coast. To bring the service more in line with other navies, on 1 May 1952 the Rear Admiral Commanding Indian Naval Squadron was re-designated Flag Officer Commanding (Flotillas), Indian Fleet,^[6]

On 30 December 1957, the office of Flag Officer Commanding (Flotillas) was re-designated Flag Officer Commanding Indian Fleet (FOCIF), while the command of the shore establishments was upgraded to the Two Star appointment of Flag Officer Bombay (FOB) in June 1958.^[7] The FOCIF and FOB reported to the Chief of the Naval Staff. On 1 March 1968, the FOB was upgraded to the Three Star of Vice Admiral and was re-designated Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command (FOC-in-C WNC). The Indian Fleet was renamed as Western Fleet with the Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet (FOCWF) reporting into the FOC-in-C WNC.^[8][2]

Area of responsibility

The Western Naval Command (WNC) is the sword arm of the Indian Navy and naval operations conducted on the western seaboard would be central to the outcome of any conflict at sea against Pakistan. The Western Fleet is the two-star level operational formation of the Western Naval Command. It utilises Mumbai and Karwar as its home ports, with INS Kunjali, its HQ in Mumbai. The fleet at the WNC is based under Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra Naval Area (FOMA) and provides naval defence in the sensitive north Arabian Sea adjacent to Pakistan. INS Kadamba, a large naval base, was constructed under Project Seabird and completed in 2005. This naval base, at Karwar in Karnataka, is used exclusively by the Indian Navy.^[1]

Capabilities

INS Vikramaditya (R33) at sea.

The Flagship carrier of the Western Fleet is INS Vikramaditya. The WNC is equipped with submarine pens, a carrier dock and main maintenance dockyards. The Carrier Battle Group of the Western Fleet consists of INS Vikramaditya, Delhi class destroyers, Talwar class frigates, Brahmaputra class frigates, INS Kolkata, Indian navy's one of the most powerful destroyer^[9] and Sindhughosh class submarines. The Naval Aviation is provided by MiG-29K fighters along with airborne early warning Kamov Ka-31 Helicopters.

Full-fledged shipbuilding facilities on the western seaboard include the Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai, the Goa Shipyard Limited and the Cochin Shipyard Ltd in Kerala, which is India's largest repair dry dock.

Organization

The Western Naval Command is organized as follows:^[10]

Post	Current Holder	References
Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief	Vice Admiral Sanjay Jasjit Singh, AVSM, NM	[4]
Chief of Staff	Vice Admiral Ajay Kochhar, AVSM, NM	[11]
Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet (FOCWF)	Rear Admiral Rahul Vilas Gokhale, NM	[12]
Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra Naval Area (FOMA)	Rear Admiral Anil Jaggi	[13]
Flag Officer Goa Area (FOGA) & Flag Officer Naval Aviation (FONA)	Rear Admiral Ajay D. Theophilus	[14]
Flag Officer Commanding Gujarat Naval Area (FOGNA)	Rear Admiral Sathish Vasudev, NM	[15]
Flag Officer Commanding Karnataka Naval Area (FOK)	Rear Admiral K. M. Ramakrishnan, VSM	[16]
Flag Officer Defence Advisory Group (FODAG)
Admiral Superintendent Dockyard (ASD) - Mumbai	Rear Admiral Deepak Kumar Goswami, AVSM	[17]
Commodore Commanding Submarines (West)	Commodore Anurag Srivastava	[18]

Naval bases

Naval bases under Western Naval Command are the following^[19]

Base	City	State/Territory	Role
INS Dwarka	Okha	Gujarat	Logistics and Maintenance support
INS Sardar Patel[20]	Porbandar		Logistics Support
INS Kadamba	Karwar	Karnataka	Logistics and Maintenance support
INS Vajrakosh			Naval ammunition and missile depot
INHS Patanjali			Naval Hospital
INS Gomantak	Vasco da gama	Goa	Logistics and Maintenance support
INS Hansa	Dabolim		Naval Air Station
INHS Jeevanti	Vasco-da-gama		Naval Hospital
INS Angre	Mumbai	Maharashtra	Logistics and Administrative support
INS Abhimanyu			MARCOS base
INS Agnibahu			Missile boat squadron base
INHS Asvini			Naval Hospital
INS Kunjali			Naval Air Station
INS Shikra			Naval Air Station
INS Tanaji			Naval ammunition depot
INS Trata			Coastal Missile Defense
INS Tunir			Naval missile depot
INS Vajrabahu			Submarine base

List of Commanders

S.No	Name	Assumed office	Left office	Notes	References
Commodore-in-Charge Bombay (COMBAY)
1	Commodore Henry Richmond Inigo-Jones	15 August 1947	31 December 1950	Formerly Royal Indian Navy.	[21]
2	Commodore R. M. T. Taylor	31 December 1950	March 1954	Seconded from the Royal Navy	[22]
3	Commodore Ajitendu Chakraverti	March 1954	16 November 1954	First Indian to hold the appointment.	[23]
4	Commodore Adhar Kumar Chatterji	17 November 1954	November 1956	Later served as Chief of the Naval Staff.	[24]
5	Commodore Bhaskar Sadashiv Soman	November 1956	12 June 1958	Later served as Chief of the Naval Staff.	[25][7]
Flag Officer Bombay (FOB)
1	Rear Admiral Bhaskar Sadashiv Soman	12 June 1958	April 1960	Later Chief of the Naval Staff.	[26]
2	Rear Admiral S. G. Karmarkar MBE	June 1960	June 1964		[27][28]
3	Rear Admiral R. S. David	June 1964	15 February 1968		[29][30]
4	Rear Admiral Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda PVSM, AVSM	16 February 1968	1 March 1968	Later Chief of the Naval Staff.	[29]
Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command (FOC-in-C WNC)
1	Vice Admiral Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda PVSM, AVSM	1 March 1968	28 February 1970	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff	[31][32]
2	Vice Admiral Nilakanta Krishnan PVSM, DSC	28 February 1970	12 February 1971		[33]
3	Vice Admiral Sourendra Nath Kohli PVSM	12 February 1971	27 February 1973	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff	[34]
4	Vice Admiral Jal Cursetji PVSM	27 February 1973	28 February 1976	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff	[35][36]
5	Vice Admiral Ronald Lynsdale Pereira PVSM, AVSM	28 February 1976	5 April 1977	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff	[37][38]
6	Vice Admiral Rustom K. S. Ghandhi PVSM, VrC	April 1977	3 March 1979		[39]
7	Vice Admiral V. E. C. Barboza PVSM, AVSM*	3 March 1979	March 1981		[40]
8	Vice Admiral Manohar Prahlad Awati PVSM, VrC	March 1981	30 March 1983		[41][42][43]
9	Vice Admiral Radhakrishna Hariram Tahiliani PVSM, AVSM	31 March 1983	30 April 1984	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff	[44]
10	Vice Admiral Subimal Mookerjee PVSM	30 April 1984	28 February 1986		[45][46]
11	Vice Admiral Sukhmal Jain PVSM, AVSM	28 February 1986	31 December 1990		[47][48]
12	Vice Admiral H. Johnson PVSM, VSM	1 January 1991	31 August 1992		[49]
13	Vice Admiral KASZ Raju PVSM, AVSM, NM	31 August 1992	31 December 1994		[50]
14	Vice Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat PVSM, AVSM	31 December 1994	30 September 1996	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff.	[51][52]
15	Vice Admiral Kailash K. Kohli PVSM, AVSM	20 October 1996	31 March 1998		[48]
16	Vice Admiral Madhvendra Singh PVSM, AVSM	1 April 1998	31 March 2001	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee	[53][54]
17	Vice Admiral Vinod Pasricha PVSM, AVSM, NM	1 April 2001	31 December 2002		[55]
18	Vice Admiral Arun Prakash PVSM, AVSM, VrC, VSM	1 January 2003	30 September 2003	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee	[56][57]
19	Vice Admiral Madanjit Singh PVSM, AVSM	1 October 2003	28 February 2006		[58][59]
20	Vice Admiral Sangram Singh Byce PVSM, AVSM, NM	1 March 2006	31 July 2007		[60][58]
21	Vice Admiral Jagjit Singh Bedi PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM	1 August 2007	30 April 2009		[61][62]
22	Vice Admiral Sanjeev Bhasin PVSM, AVSM, VSM	1 May 2009	30 April 2012		[63]
23	Vice Admiral D. K. Joshi PVSM, AVSM, YSM, NM, VSM	1 May 2012	31 August 2012	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff. Current Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.	[64]
24	Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha PVSM, AVSM, NM*	1 September 2012	31 May 2014	Retired from the Navy after being superseded.	[65]
25	Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chopra PVSM, AVSM	1 June 2014	31 March 2015		[66]
26	Vice Admiral S. P. S. Cheema PVSM, AVSM, NM	1 April 2015	31 January 2016	Also headed the Strategic Forces Command and the Southern Naval Command, apart from serving as the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff.	[67][68]
26	Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba PVSM, AVSM	1 February 2016	31 May 2016	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee	[69]
27	Vice Admiral Girish Luthra PVSM, AVSM, VSM	1 June 2016	31 January 2019		[70][71]
28	Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar P PVSM, AVSM, VSM	1 February 2019	28 February 2021		[72]
29	Vice Admiral R. Hari Kumar PVSM, AVSM, VSM	28 February 2021	29 November 2021	Later served as Chief of Naval Staff	[73]
30	Vice Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh PVSM, AVSM, VSM	30 November 2021	28 February 2023		[74]
31	Vice Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi PVSM, AVSM, NM	1 March 2023	3 January 2024	Current Chief of the Naval Staff	[75]
32	Vice Admiral Sanjay Jasjit Singh AVSM, NM	3 January 2024	Incumbent		[76]

See also

• Eastern Naval Command
• Southern Naval Command

References

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