Navy Chief Reviews Operation Sahayam

KOCHI:
Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba has reviewed ‘Operation Sahayam’, the search and rescue operation carried out by the Navy in the high seas in the aftermath of Cyclone Ockhi.
Admiral Lanba held extensive discussions with senior officers of Southern Naval Command and reviewed ‘Op Sahayam’, the SNC’s search and rescue operation following the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm ‘Ockhi’, a defence release said today.
He left Kochi today after his three-day visit on completion of the silver jubilee seminar of the Flag officer Sea training (FOST) organisation, it said. The Navy chief was the chief guest for the seminar which had international participation from 18 delegates from countries such as Malaysia, Sri-Lanka and UAE.
During the visit, the Admiral also held discussions with the Commander of the Sri Lankan Navy, Vice Admiral Sirimevan Ranasinghe, who was also invited for the FOST silver jubilee celebrations, the release said. He also inaugurated the ‘New Vajra Enclave’- an officers residential complex of the Officer’s Mess of SNC and laid the foundation stone for a state-of-the-art Navigation and Direction (ND) simulator at Navigation and Direction School yesterday.
Besides this, the Navy chief visited all the latest facilities developed at the naval base in recent times such as newly constructed Modern Dive Training Facility (Chiman Singh Block) at Diving School, the Observer School and the Naval Aircraft Yard (NAY).
Earlier, the foreign delegates, who joined on the second day of the seminar yesterday, were welcomed by Vice Admiral AR Karve, the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) Southern Naval Command. According to the release, Admiral Lanba complimented the speakers as well as the moderators during the international seminar- which was themed ‘Operational Sea Training: Sharing Best Practices’- for presenting their perspectives on issues of immediate and topical interest to the Navy.