Indian Navy’s Annual Refit Conference 23 (ARC-23) and Annual Infrastructure & Indigenisation Conference 23 (AIIC-23) was conducted on 23 and 24 Feb 23 at Headquarters, Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam.

Held under the Chairmanship of VAdm Sandeep Naithani, Chief of Materiel (COM) it saw discussions on refit plans, operational availability of ships/ submarines of the Indian Navy and the plans for augmentation of infrastructure to meet the growing requirements of the Indian Navy.

The Chief of Materiel lauded the progress made on maintenance and sustenance aspects of Machinery, Hull, Weapons and Sensors of the Naval platforms.

He urged the Technical fraternity to remain focused on challenges faced and use latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, quantum computation, 5G for IOT, robotics, etc, to ensure enhanced operational availability of ships and submarines through reduction in maintenance periods.

During the AIIC meeting held on Feb 24, 2023, progress of various Technical and Marine infrastructure projects was also reviewed by the Chief of Materiel.

The COM expressed satisfaction with the pace of the ongoing technical infrastructure projects aimed at the augmentation of repair and refitting facilities in the Indian Navy. Further, various Marine infrastructure projects including the creation of additional berthing space for future platforms planned to be inducted over the next 15 years were reviewed during the meeting.

An exclusive session on indigenisation was also conducted during the conference, in line with the Government of India’s initiative of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.