Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan assumes charge as 47th Vice Chief of Naval Staff

Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan assumed charge as the 47th Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (VCNS) on Friday. The flag officer, after his appointment, paid solemn homage to the brave hearts who made the supreme sacrifice in service of the nation, by laying a wreath at the National War Memorial.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy in Pune, Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan was commissioned into the Navy on January 1, 1988. A specialist in gunnery and missile systems, he has held a wide range of command, operational and staff assignments over his distinguished naval career spanning more than three decades.

At sea, he has served onboard various frontline warships, including as the commissioning crew of the Guided Missile Destroyer INS Mysore, INS Nishank and pre-commissioning crew of Coast Guard OPV CGS Sangram. He also served as the executive officer of INS Mysore.

He has commanded the coast guard ship C-05, the missile vessels INS Vibhuti and INS Nashak, the missile corvette INS Kuthar and the guided missile frigate INS Sahyadri as the commissioning commanding officer.

In February 2020, he took over as the flag officer commanding the eastern fleet, and led numerous operational deployments and exercises during a time of heightened maritime activity, post events at Galwan.

A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Naval War College in Goa and the prestigious National Defence College in New Delhi, Vatsayan has also excelled in key strategic and policy-oriented staff roles.

His appointments at the Indian Naval Headquarters include the joint director and director of personnel (Policy), director naval plans (perspective planning) and principal director naval plans.

On promotion to the Flag rank in February 2018, he served as the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy and Plans) prior to commanding the eastern fleet of the Navy.

For his exceptional leadership and meritorious service of very high order, he was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) in 2021. Thereafter, he served as the Deputy Commandant of the National Defence Academy and later, in December 2021, he was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the Eastern Naval Command (ENC). In this capacity, he steered ENC's operational readiness, personnel development and infrastructure augmentation.

Prior to taking over as the VCNS, he served as the Deputy Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff (DCIDS) – Operations and thereafter, as DCIDS (Policy, Plans and Force Development) at the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS), where he played a key role in coordination of operations, enhancing integration, jointness, force development and framing policies promoting indigenisation across the three defence services.

Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan is married to Sarita and has a son, an economics graduate who has completed his MBA from the Indian School of Business, and a daughter, who has graduated in humanities.

- Ends