The Flag Officer Submarines (FOSM) is the single-point class authority of submarines in the Indian Navy. A two star Officer 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 FOSM is responsible for submarine safety, submarine training, maintenance and operating schedules and operational readiness inspections. The current FOSM is

Chetan C Chandegave who assumed office on 1 Sept 2024.

History

The submarine arm of 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 ...

was formed with the commissioning of in December 1967. Three other submarines – , and were acquired from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the 8th Submarine squadron was formed. The submarine base INS Virbahu in

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

was commissioned on 19 May 1971 as the shore support base for submarines. The Commanding Officer of ''Virbahu'' functioned as the Captain of the submarine squadron and the class Authority for all submarines. In 1985, the Navy's Command and Control structure was streamlined. To rationalise Command and Control of the Submarine Arm, a single-point class authority was constituted which would be located at the Submarine Headquarters in Visakhapatnam. This authority would be responsible for all training and maintenance of submarines, analogous to Flag Officer Naval Aviation (FONA). The authority was christened Flag Officer Submarines (FOSM) and Rear Admiral Arun Auditto, took over as the first FOSM. The FOSM was to be responsible to NHQ for all Class Authority and training functions in regard to submarines. The FOSM would be under the administrative control of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command. (FOC-in-C ENC), but interact with the FOC-in-C of both Eastern Naval Command and Western Naval Command on all matters related to his charter of duties. In the 1990s, the need for a senior officer at Naval headquarters was felt. The officer would impart senior level advice on submarine matters. On 14 October 1996, the appointment of Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Submarines) (ACNS SM) was created. Rear Admiral Arun Kumar Singh, took over as the first ACNS (SM). He also dual-hatted as the FOSM. While the policy decisions were taken by the FOSM, the administration of the submarine HQ was carried out by a Commodore. The ACNS functioned under the Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. In January 2001, the post of ACNS (SM) was instituted as a separate billet. The ACNS (SM) is based at NHQ while the FOSM is based at Visakhapatnam.

Structure

The submarine base INS Virbahu and the submarine training school INS Satavahana come under the FOSM. INS Satavahana, being a training establishment comes under the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command since the command is the training command of the Navy. FOSM provides necessary support to FOC-in-C South for technical aspects of submarine training.

List of FOSM

Notes

References

Bibliography