Kin of Defence personnel and public were privy to plenty of action by the seven ships of the Eastern Naval Fleet from the Eastern Naval Command. This was part of the celebrations ahead of Navy Day which falls on December 4.
Navy Day is celebrated to commemorate the daring, first-of-its-kind missile attack by our Navy’s missile boats on Karachi during the 1971 Indo-Pak war which was the first time our Navy was drawn into war.
The seven ships of the fleet which took part in the demonstration include INS Jalashwa, a Landing Platform Dock (LPD), Destroyer INS Ranvijay, Frigates INS Shivalik and INS Satpura, and the missile corvettes Khukri, Kulish, and Khanjar.
The exercise began with the formation of the seven ships mid-sea and the subsequent landing and take-off of Seaking Helicopter was carried out on INS Shivalik.
Besides, a warning shot was fired to show how the Navy wards off fast moving vessels manned by terrorists and pirates.
A simulated missile firing demonstration was held for the viewers, with the INS Shivalik boasting of its Surface to Air Missile (SAM) by loading it in its launcher and aiming at a fictitious target. INS Satpura and INS Kulish, while moving in close quarters, performed ‘jack stay’ in which a Navy personnel of transfer was carried out using ropes and transfer gear. Dr Karthiyayini, wife of Commodore Amar K Mahadevan, Naval Officer-in-charge (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry), attempted ‘jack stay’ and successfully transferred to INS Kulish and back to INS Satpura during the event.
As it was being performed, P-8I, a long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations, flew above INS Kulish twice. It was inducted to the Indian Navy earlier this year.
Apart from about 3,000 civilians who witnessed the demonstration, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Virendra Kataria along with Rear Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, the Flag Officer Commanding of the Eastern Fleet, which is also dubbed the sunshine fleet and the sword arm of the Indian Navy, also viewed the demonstration from INS Satpura.
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