Director General Naval Operations

At the time of independence of India on 15 August 1947, the Directorate of Operations was under the Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Royal Indian Navy, the de facto Second-in-command. In 1949, the Chief of Staff was also made Deputy Commander-in-Chief RIN.^[1] In 1955, the post was re-designated Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff (DCNS).^[2] The Directorate continued to be under the DCNS until 1984, when an Assistant Principal Staff Officer (APSO) appointment called Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Operations) (ACNS Ops) was created. A two-star appointment, the ACNS (Ops) continued to report into the DCNS.^[3]

In 1986, the Directorates of Submarine Operations, Tactics, Diving and Oceanology & Meteorology were added to ACNS (Ops). ^[4] In 1997, Information warfare was added to the mandate of ACNS (Ops) and the appointment was re-designated ACNS (IWOPS).^[5] In 2013, the appointment was upgraded to Three-star rank and re-designated Director General Naval Operations. Vice Admiral Girish Luthra took over as the first DGNO.^[6][7]

The DGNO is part of the Staff Branch-II at the Naval Headquarters. The following Assistant Principal Staff Officers and directorates report into the DGNO.^[8]

• Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Communication, Space and Network Centric Operations)
  • Directorate of Naval Signals
  • Directorate Network and Space Operations
  • Directorate of Network Centric Operations
• Directorate of Naval Operations
• Directorate of Special Operations and Diving
• Directorate of Information Warfare
• Directorate of Naval Oceanology and Meteorology
• Directorate of Submarine Operations
• Naval History Division

• Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff