New commanding officer for Indian Navy’s Eastern Naval Command

Indian Navy Vice Admiral HCS Bisht, AVSM took over as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command from Vice Admiral Satish Soni, at a ceremonial parade held at the Naval Base, February 29.

Admiral Bisht inspected the ceremonial guard and reviewed platoons of naval personnel from various ships and establishments of the Indian Navy Eastern Naval Command.

Vice Admiral Satish Soni will be retiring from the Naval Service today on completion of a forty-year-career.

Having joined the Navy in 1979, Vice Admiral Bisht is an alumnus of Sainik School, the National Defence Academy, Royal Naval Staff College, College of Naval Warfare and the National Defence College. In the course of his career, the Flag Officer has held various operational, staff/training and command appointments.

Vice Admiral Bisht’s important afloat appointments include Executive Officer of the ASW Corvette INS Ajay, Fleet Gunnery Officer of the Eastern Fleet at Visakhapatnam, commissioning Commanding Officer of the Missile Corvette INS Kora and Command of the stealth frigate, INS Tabar.

On promotion to the rank of Vice Admiral on 01 September 2012, the Flag Officer held appointments as the Controller Personnel Services (CPS) at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy) and as Director General of Indian Coast Guard (DGICG).

In a separate ceremony from February 27, the Indian Eastern Naval Command also received a new Chief of Staff. Namely, Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, took over as the Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command from Vice Admiral Bimal Verma.