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 ...

Puneet Chadha, VSM is a serving flag officer 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 ...

. He currently serves as the Additional Director General of the National Cadet Corps. He previously served as the

Flag Officer Commanding Tamil Nadu & Puducherry Naval Area Flag Officer Commanding Tamil Nadu & Puducherry Naval Area (FOTNA) is a senior appointment in the Indian Navy. One of the five Area Commanders of the Indian Navy, the FOTNA is a two star admiral holding the rank of Rear Admiral. The FOTNA is respo ...

(FOTNA) and as the Deputy Commandant of the

Indian Naval Academy The Indian Naval Academy (INA or INA Ezhimala) is the Defense (military), defence service training establishment for officer cadre of the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard, located in Ezhimala, Kannur district, Kerala. Situated between Ez ...

. As the last

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 ...

of the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

, he decommissioned the carrier in 2017.

Naval career

Chadha graduated from the

National Defence Academy The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the joint defence service training institute of the Indian Armed Forces. Here, cadets of the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force train together before they go on to their respective service a ...

and was commissioned into the

on 1 July 1987. He specialised in

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...

(ASW). He attended the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College, Kuala Lumpur. He has also attended the Higher Naval Command course at the

Naval War College, Goa The Naval War College (NWC) is a premier training institution of the Indian Navy, located in Goa. The college aims at developing leadership qualities of the officers of the Indian Armed Forces at the strategic and operational level. It is one of th ...

and the National Defence College. In his instructional appointments, Chadha has served as

Directing Staff Military education and training is a process which intends to establish and improve the capabilities of military personnel in their respective roles. Military training may be voluntary or compulsory duty. It begins with recruit training, proceed ...

at Centre for Leadership and Behavioral Studies (CLABS) in Kochi and at the

Defence Services Staff College The Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) is a defence service training institution of the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. It trains officers of all three services of the Indian Armed Forces – (Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Air ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

. Chadha has commanded the

Veer-class corvette The ''Veer''-class corvettes of the Indian Navy are a customised Indian variant of the Soviet Navy, Soviet .Submarine rescue vessel A submarine rescue ship is a surface support ship for submarine rescue and deep-sea Marine salvage, salvage operations. Methods employed include the McCann Rescue Chamber, deep-submergence rescue vehicles (DSRV's) and diving operations. Lis ...

. He subsequently commanded the

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships that are all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very comple ...

of her class of

guided-missile destroyer A guided-missile destroyer (DDG) is a destroyer whose primary armament is guided missiles so they can provide anti-aircraft warfare screening for the fleet. The NATO standard designation for these vessels is DDG, while destroyers which have a pr ...

s . In 2016, he took over as

of the

. He was in command of ''INS Viraat'' during the International Fleet Review 2016 (IFR 2016) at

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 ...

. IFR 2016 was the last action seen by ''Viraat'' as she was decommissioned soon after. As the 22nd and last CO of Viraat, Chadha decommissioned the aircraft carrier in a ceremony in Mumbai. Chadha has served as the Fleet Operations Officer of the

Eastern Fleet Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

, based in Visakhapatnam. He has served as Director in the Perspective Planning directorate at the Army headquarters and as Director Net assessment in the

Integrated Defence Staff The Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) is an organisation responsible for fostering coordination and enabling prioritisation across the different branches of the Indian Armed Forces. It is composed of representatives from the Indian Army, Indian Navy ...

headquarters. At Naval HQ, he has served as the Director and Principal Director Staff Requirements.

Flag rank

On 27 March 2018, Chadha was promoted to 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 ...

and appointed Deputy Commandant and Chief Instructor of the

, Ezhimala. After a year-long stint, he moved to Visakhapatnam as the Chief Staff Officer (Operations) of the

Eastern Naval Command The Eastern Naval Command is one of the three command-level formations of the Indian Navy. It is headquartered in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The command is responsible for the all naval forces in the Bay of Bengal and parts of the Indian Ocea ...

. As CSO (Ops), he led a delegation to China, participating in the PLA Navy International Fleet Review in April 2019. On 30 June 2020, he was appointed Flag Officer Commanding Tamil Nadu & Puducherry Naval Area (FOTNA).

Awards and decorations

References

Flag Officer Tamil Nadu & Puducherry Naval Area {{DEFAULTSORT:Chadha, Puneet Indian Navy rear admirals National Defence Academy (India) alumni National Defence College, India alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Vishisht Seva Medal Naval War College, Goa alumni Deputy Commandants of the Indian Naval Academy Flag Officers Commanding Tamil Nadu & Puducherry Naval Area