Vice Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

Rajesh Dhankhar, NM is a serving Flag officer 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 ...

. He currently serves as the

Director General Project Seabird The Director General of Project Seabird (DG Seabird) is a senior appointment in the Indian Navy with the rank of Vice Admiral. The DG heads the Seabird Project with a charter to oversee the largest defence infrastructure project progressing at the ...

. He earlier served as the

Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet (FOCEF) is the title of the Indian Navy Officer who commands the Eastern Fleet, headquartered in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The FOCEF is a Two Star Officer holding the rank of Rear Admiral. The current FO ...

, Commandant of 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 ...

, Flag Officer Sea Training and commanded 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 ...

from 2019 to 2020.

Naval career

Dhankhar was commissioned into the

on 1 July 1990. He is a specialist in Navigation and Direction. He spent his early years onboard frontline warships as the navigating and operations officer. He has served as an instructor at the Project 15 training team in Mumbai. He attended 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 ...

. He also served as an instructor at the Mids Wing of the Officer Cadet School in Singapore and at the Navigation and Direction School in Kochi. Dhankar commanded the Magar-class amphibious warfare vessel . In 2011, he attended the Higher Command Course at the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Command and Staff College in Tokyo. He served as the

executive officer An executive officer is a person who is principally responsible for leading all or part of an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. In many militaries and police forces, an executive officer ...

and the principal warfare officer of 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 . He then commanded ''Delhi's''

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

. ''Mumbai'' was deployed as part of

Operation Raahat Operation Raahat () was an operation of the Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens and foreign nationals from Yemen during the 2015 military intervention by Saudi Arabia and its allies in that country during the Yemeni Crisis. The ev ...

to provide protection and support to Indian ships and aircraft involved in the evacuation of Indian citizens from

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

during the

military intervention Interventionism, in international politics, is the interference of a state or group of states into the domestic affairs of another state for the purposes of coercing that state to do something or refrain from doing something. The intervention ca ...

. For this operation, he was awarded the

Nao Sena Medal Nau Sena Medal (also spelt ''Nao Sena Medal'', lit. ''Navy Medal'') is a gallantry award for servicemen in the Indian Navy. History The Nau Sena Medal was instituted on 26 January 1960 by the Government of India, with the approval of the Presid ...

for gallantry. As a staff officer, he served in the Directorate of Naval Plans at Naval headquarters. In September 2019, Dhankar took over as the 5th

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

. He subsequently served as the Principal Director of Personnel at NHQ, in the rank of

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (India), in India ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ' ...

Flag rank

Dhankar was promoted to flag rank in February 2021 and was appointed Chief Staff Officer (Training) (CSO (Trg)) at the

Southern Naval Command The Southern Naval Command is one of the three, command-level formations of the Indian Navy. Southern Naval Command is the largest naval command in India and it has its headquarters in Kochi, Kerala at INS Venduruthy. It is the Training Comman ...

headquarters in Kochi. After a short stint, he took over as the Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) also at Kochi. As FOST, his charter included the conduct of the operational sea training of all ships of the

and the

Indian Coast Guard The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is a maritime law enforcement and search and rescue agency of India with jurisdiction over its territorial waters including its contiguous zone and Exclusive economic zone of India, exclusive economic zone. It was st ...

. On 18 May 2022, he was appointed Commandant of the

. He took over from Rear Admiral Sai Venkat Raman. After an eighteen month tenure, he was appointed

. He took over from Rear Admiral Gurcharan Singh on 10 November 2023. He was succeeded by Rear Admiral

Susheel Menon Rear Admiral Susheel Menon, VSM is a serving Flag officer in the Indian Navy. He currently serves as the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet. He earlier served as the Flag Officer Sea Training and commanded the aircraft carrier from 2021 t ...

on 21 August 2024. On 28 August 2024, after being promoted to the rank of

, he was appointed as the

, which is being undertaken at

Karwar Karwar is a coastal City and the administrative headquarters of Uttara Kannada district, formerly part of the Bombay Presidency, located at the mouth of the Kali River (Karnataka), Kali river along the Konkan Coast in the present-day state of Ka ...

Naval Base at

INS Kadamba INS ''Kadamba'' or Naval Base Karwar is an Indian Navy base located near Karwar in Karnataka. The base, which was commissioned on 31 May 2005, is being developed under the codename, Project Seabird. The Phase I of the project was completed i ...

. The previous DG of the project was Vice Admiral Tarun Sobti.

Awards and decorations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhankhar, Rajesh Indian Navy vice admirals Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Defence Services Staff College alumni Flag Officers Sea Training Commandants of Naval War College, Goa Recipients of the Nau Sena Medal Flag Officers Commanding Eastern Fleet Directors General Project Seabird

Naval career

Flag rank

Awards and decorations

See also

References