KOCHI: Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla, has been appointed as the next Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command (FOC-in-C, South). He is presently the Chief of Personnel at the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (Navy), Delhi. He will be taking over from Vice Admiral A R Karve who will be superannuating on July 31.
The Admiral is an alumnus of the NDA, who was commissioned in the Navy on January 1, 1982. He is a navigation and direction specialist and has commanded five ships in his career, including the now-decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Viraat.
His important staff appointments ashore include instructor at NAD and senior instructor (Navy) at the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington, Ooty. The officer has also been the Defence Attaché in the Embassy of India at Jakarta, Indonesia, where he was instrumental in the signing of the India-Indonesia Defence Agreement in February 2001.
He has been the Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet. He oversaw “Op-Rahat”, which involved the evacuation of Indian, as well as foreign nationals from war-torn Yemen.