Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

Gurcharan Singh, NM is a serving Flag officer in the Indian Navy. He currently serves 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 FOC ...

, having taken over from Rear Admiral Sanjay Bhalla in November 2022.

Early life and education

Singh was born in a naval family. His father was a gunnery officer and was posted at

INS Venduruthy INS Venduruthy is an Indian Navy base located on Willingdon Island in Kochi, Kerala. It serves as the Headquarters of the Southern Naval Command. It is the largest training establishment of the Indian Navy. INS Garuda is a naval air station l ...

and subsequently at the gunnery school INS Dronacharya. Singh spent his childhood in Kochi and attended the Kendriya Vidyalaya Naval Base Kochi. After his schooling, he joined the National Defence Academy, Pune. Singh has attended the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, 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.

Naval career

Singh was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 1 July 1990. He is a specialist in Gunnery and missile Warfare. During his ab-initio training, he placed first in the overall order of merit and was awarded the Admiral RD Katari Trophy. He has served in specialist tenures on board the Rajput-class destroyer , the

Veer-class corvette The ''Veer''-class corvettes of the Indian Navy are a customised Indian variant of the Soviet .commissioning

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, o ...

of the lead ship of her class of

stealth Stealth may refer to: Military *Stealth technology, technology used to conceal ships, aircraft, and missiles **Stealth aircraft, aircraft which use stealth technology **Stealth ground vehicle, ground vehicles which use stealth technology ** Stea ...

guided missile frigate . Singh has commanded the Veer-class missile vessel , and the lead ship of her class of missile corvettes . He subsequently commanded the Kolkata-class stealth guided-missile destroyer . Singh, in his staff appointments, has served as the training coordinator at the gunnery base INS Dronacharya. He also served as the Director of Naval Intelligence at Naval headquarters. As a Commodore, he served as the Chief Staff Officer and Commodore Work Up at Indian Naval Workup Team Kochi (INWT), under the Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST). For his tenure at INWT, on 26 January 2020, he was awarded the Nao Sena Medal for devotion to duty. He subsequently served as the Deputy Commandant of his alma mater,

Flag rank

On promotion to Flag Rank, Singh took over as the Chief Staff Officer (Operations) (CSO Ops) at the Western Naval Command. He also served as the Assistant Chief of Personnel (Human Resource Development) (ACOP HRD) at naval headquarters. ACOP is an assistant principal staff officer appointment. On 29 November 2022, he assumed the office of the

(FOCEF), taking over from

Sanjay Bhalla.

Awards and decorations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Gurcharan Indian Navy admirals Flag Officers Commanding Eastern Fleet National Defence Academy (India) alumni National Defence College, India alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Naval War College, Goa alumni Defence Services Staff College alumni

Early life and education

Naval career

Flag rank

Awards and decorations

See also

References