Rear Admiral Rajesh Dhankhar, took over command of the Eastern Fleet, the Sword Arm of the Eastern Naval Command, from Rear Admiral Gurcharan Singh, on 10 November 2023. The change of guard took place at an impressive ceremony held at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam.
RAdm Rajesh Dhankhar was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 01 July 1990 and is a specialist in Navigation & Direction. The Flag Officer is an alumnus of the prestigious Naval Academy, Defence Services Staff College, and has done his Higher Command Course in Japan.
During his illustrious career spanning 33 years, the Flag Officer has occupied specialist appointments onboard warships Pondicherry, Godavari, Kora and Mysore. The officer has also done instructional tenures in the erstwhile Project 15 Training Team, Navigation & Direction School and at Officer’s Cadet School, Singapore. His command appointments include Executive Officer onboard INS Delhi, and as Commanding Officer onboard INS Gharial, Mumbai and Vikramaditya. His notable staff and operational appointments include those as Joint Director and Director at Directorate of Naval Plans, Principal Director/ Cmde(Pers) at the Directorate of Personnel. In Flag rank, he has tenanted the duties of Chief Staff Officer (Training), Flag Officer Sea Training and Commandant, Naval War College. The officer also tenanted additional duties of Chairman Carrier Acceptance Trials Team to oversee the acceptance trials of INS Vikrant.
The Flag Officer is a recipient of the Nao Sena Medal (Gallantry) in 2015 for Non Combatant Evacuation Operations (NEO) of Indian nationals from Aden and Al-Hodeida, Yemen.
Over the past 11 months, the Eastern Fleet, under the command of RAdm Gurcharan Singh, has maintained a very high level of combat readiness and operational tempo and participated in various Mission Based and operational deployments, and several bilateral and multilateral engagements with friendly foreign navies.