By Staff Correspondent
Indian Navy’s Annual Refit Conference 23 (ARC-23) and Annual Infrastructure and Indigenisation Conference 23 (AIIC-23) were held on February 23 and 24 at the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) headquarters in Visakhapatnam. The conferences were chaired by Vice Admiral Sandeep Naithani, the Chief of Materiel (COM), and attended by delegates from various Naval organisations.
Discussions during the ARC-23 focused on the refit plans, operational availability of Indian Navy ships and submarines, and infrastructure plans to meet the growing requirements of the Navy. The COM praised the progress made on the maintenance and sustenance aspects of machinery, hull, weapons, and sensors of naval platforms. He encouraged the technical fraternity to use the latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, quantum computation, 5G for the Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics to reduce maintenance periods and enhance operational availability.
The AIIC-23 meeting reviewed progress on various technical and marine infrastructure projects, including the augmentation of repair and refitting facilities and the creation of additional berthing space for future platforms over the next 15 years. The COM expressed satisfaction with the pace of ongoing infrastructure projects aimed at meeting the growing requirements of the Navy.
An exclusive session on indigenisation was also conducted during the conference in line with the Government of India’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative. The extended deployment of Indian Navy ships away from base ports was highlighted as a growing challenge that required greater reliance on repair authorities to deliver quality output.
Delegates from the Naval Headquarters, the three Naval Commands, the Tri-Services Andaman and Nicobar Command, Director General Naval Projects, Naval Dockyards, Repair Yards, and Material Organisations of the Indian Navy attended the conferences.
