Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet Gets New Commander
New Delhi : Rear Admiral Rajesh Dhankhar took over command of the Eastern Fleet, the Sword Arm of the Eastern Naval Command, from Rear Admiral Gurcharan Singh, on November 10, 2023. The change of guard took place at an impressive ceremony held at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam.
Rear Admiral Dhankhar is a specialist in Navigation & Direction and has a distinguished career spanning 33 years. He has tenanted various specialist appointments onboard warships and has also done instructional tenures in the Indian Navy. His command appointments include Executive Officer onboard INS Delhi and Commanding Officer onboard INS Gharial, Mumbai, and Vikramaditya. He has also served in various staff and operational appointments, including as Joint Director and Director at Directorate of Naval Plans, Principal Director/ Cmde(Pers) at the Directorate of Personnel, Chief Staff Officer (Training), Flag Officer Sea Training, and Commandant, Naval War College. He was also the Chairman of the Carrier Acceptance Trials Team to oversee the acceptance trials of INS Vikrant.
Rear Admiral Dhankhar 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.
Under the command of Rear Admiral Gurcharan Singh, the Eastern Fleet has maintained a high level of combat readiness and operational tempo in the past 11 months. The Fleet has participated in various Mission Based and operational deployments, and several bilateral and multilateral engagements with friendly foreign navies.
