Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan

Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan took over as DCIDS (PP&FD) on December 1, 2023. Prior to taking up this appointment, he was Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Operations) since August 5, 2023. He is a graduate of the National Defence Academy, Pune (1986), Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India (2003), Naval War College, Mumbai (2010) and National Defence College, New Delhi (2014).

He was commissioned into the Indian Navy on January 1, 1988 and specialised in Gunnery and Missile Warfare in 1994. He has done his specialist tenures on frontline ships of the Indian Navy, including as the commissioning crew of Guided Missile Destroyer, INS Mysore, INS Nishank and pre-commissioning crew of Coast Guard OPV CGS Sangram. He has also served as the Executive Officer of INS Mysore. His Command assignments include a Coast Guard ship C-05, Missile vessels INS Vibhuti and INS Nashak, missile corvette INS Kuthar and Guided Missile Frigate INS Sahyadri (commissioning crew). He commanded the Eastern Fleet at Visakhapatnam from February 2020 to February 2021 (Galwan period).

His staff assignments include Joint Director of Personnel, Director of Personnel (Policy), Director Naval Plans (Perspective Planning), Principal Director Naval Plans and Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy & Plans) at Integrated Headquarters Ministry of Defence (Navy), Deputy Commandant and Chief Instructor at National Defence Academy and Chief of Staff, Headquarters Eastern Naval Command.