AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 300 of 332 Acknowledgement This article was written on the occasion of the 25 th Anniversary of INS Rajali which the author had the honour of commissioning on 11 March 1992. In 2017, the Silver Jubilee celebrations were conducted in Rajali and this is a reproduction of the article updated till 2021) About the Author An alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College, the Naval War College and the International Visitor Leadership Programme, USA, Commodore (Retd) Seshadri Vasan has a distinguished career spanning over 34 years. His wide ranging appointments since commissioning in 1969, both at sea and ashore include Command of warships, appointment in carrier borne wing of INS Vikrant, Command of long range Maritime Reconnaissance/ASW squadron, member examiner of the Aircrew Categorisation and Standardisation Board (AIRCATS), Chief Staff Officer (Operations) at Southern Naval Command the premier training command of the Indian Navy. He has participated both in 1971 operations and also IPKF operations. He commissioned a major naval air station INS Rajali close to the east coast of India and commanded another air station INS Garuda on the west coast. As a Director at Naval Headquarters, he was responsible for Aviation Planning and Acquisition. He was also in charge of Air Organisation and Training at NHQ. He was on the faculty for over two years at the prestigious Naval War College that trains senior level officers from all the three services. He was on deputation to the Indian Coast Guard from 2000 to 2003 as the Eastern Regional Commander with maritime jurisdiction in the Bay of Bengal including the Indo Bangladesh maritime border and the Indo Sri Lanka maritime boundary. He was charged with the task of I4SR, EEZ surveillance, anti-piracy, Search and Rescue, anti-poaching and marine pollution prevention. During this time he was also responsible for advising the newly formed Coastal Security Group regarding training at sea. Since his retirement he has been writing regularly for various magazines, newspapers and websites. He has been conducting workshops and delivering talks for International delegates in many parts of the world on maritime issues, military diplomacy, strategy, security and aviation issues, China related strategy and security issues.