Flag Officer Commanding Gujarat, Daman & Diu Naval Area (FOGNA) is a senior appointment in the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

. One of the five Area Commanders of the Indian Navy, the FOGNA is a two star admiral holding the rank of

Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

. The FOGNA is responsible for the operations and administration of all units and establishments in

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

and

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is a union territory in India. The territory was constituted through the merger of the former territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Plans for the proposed merger were announced by th ...

. The Current FOGNA is

Sathish Vasudev, who assumed office on 24 August 2024.

History

In 1966, the appointment of Naval Officer-in-Charge (NOIC) Kathiawar was created. A small forward outpost was created at Okha, under the NOIC. Initially, the NOIC was based out of Mumbai, later moving to Okha. In late 1972, the establishment was commissioned as INS Dwarka, with the NOIC (Kathiawar) as the

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually give ...

. In 1983, NOIC (Kathiawar) was re-designated as NOIC (Saurashtra), and moved to Dwarka II in Porbandar in 1985. NOIC (Saurashtra) was again later re-designated as NOIC (Gujarat) in 1997. In the 1980s, a proposal to upgrade NOIC to Flag Officer Saurashtra Area (FOSA) was mooted but shelved. For a brief period, the Maharashtra Naval Area was expanded to include Gujarat, Daman and Diu. The Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Area headed the combined Naval area. In 2015, to enhance the operational and administrative efficiency, the Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Area was divided to make two separate headquarters under

Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra Naval Area Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra Naval Area (FOMA) is a senior appointment in the Indian Navy. One of the five Area Commanders of the Indian Navy, the FOMA is a two star admiral holding the rank of Rear Admiral. The FOMA has operational contr ...

(FOMA) and Flag Officer Commanding Gujarat Naval Area (FOGNA). The last Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Area, Rear Admiral Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar handed over command of the Maharashtra Area to Rear Admiral S. N. Ghormade and officiated as the first Flag Officer Gujarat Naval Area.

Organisation

The FOGNA is assisted by the NOIC (Gujarat), a one-star appointment. The NOIC (Guj) also serves as the Chief Staff Officer at Headquarters Gujarat Naval Area (HQGNA). The FOGNA is responsible to the

Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command The Western Naval Command is one of the three command–level formations of the Indian Navy. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. As the senior–most of the three formations, the command is responsible for the all naval forces in the A ...

for the operations and administration of all units and establishments in

and

. The establishments under the FOGNA include: * Headquarters Gujarat Naval Area (HQGNA) * The

Forward operating base A forward operating base (FOB) is any secured forward operational level military position, commonly a military base, that is used to support strategic goals and tactical objectives. A FOB may contain an airbase, hospital, machine shop, and othe ...

INS Dwarka * The naval base INS Sardar Patel * Naval Air Enclave, Porbandar * The

naval air squadron A naval air squadron (NAS) is the title of naval aviation squadrons in some countries. Poland The Polish ''Morski Dywizjon Lotniczy'' #Naval Air Squadron# was formed in 1920 with two ''Escadrille''s# United Kingdom The squadrons of the Fleet A ...

INAS 343 * The naval air squadron

INAS 314 The Indian Naval Air Squadron 314 (INAS 314) is a naval squadron of the Indian Navy based at Naval Air Enclave (NAE) Porbandar. The squadron was commissioned on 29 November 2019 by Vice Admiral MS Pawar. This squadron is currently operational ...

* Sagar Prahari Bal, Porbandar

List of Commanders

References

Bibliography

* * {{Indian Navy Indian Navy Indian military appointments Indian Navy appointments

History

Organisation

List of Commanders

See also

References

Bibliography