WesWorld

An Interview with Commodore Virendra Iraani, Indian Naval Training Command

AWNR: Commodore Iraani, good morning.

VI: And to you.

AWNR: Commodore, training is a job that a lot of naval enthusiasts don’t often think about. Tell us about your job and why it is important.

VI: I supervise the Naval Training Command, which has facilities and squadrons in Columbo and Sikkwe. My job, and that of my staff, is to give young men the skills they need to serve on our warships.

AWNR: And what sort of facilities do you have for that purpose?

VI: We have extensive lecture and educational facilities at the Nautical College in Columbo, where our younger cadets start out. Our faculty includes several dozen full-time instructors as well as a number of guest speakers - for example, we recently had Pilot-Captain Tijori speak to a class about naval aviation.

AWNR: We’ve met with the Pilot-Captain. Tell us about the training flotilla, Commodore.

VI: Our training flotilla consists of two squadrons. The First Squadron consists of the old battleship Ashoka and the protected cruiser Mysore - it’s based here in Columbo. The Second Squadron consists of the submarine IX-1 , torpedo boats L-97 and L-99 , the yacht Vikrant , and several small craft. These are home-ported in Sikkwe at the fleet base; apart from the submarine, they’re also all fairly old vessels.

AWNR: Those are some historical ships in the list.

VI: Yes, indeed - it’s a large portion of the so-called “First Fleet” the Germans built for us back in the late eighties and early nineties.

AWNR: Now, how did a powerful ship like Ashoka end up in a training capacity? I’m surprised she wasn’t used in the war with the Dutch.

VI: Well, it came down to a matter of politics and capacity. Ashoka and her sister, the original Chandragupta , made up our most powerful squadron through the first part of the decade. When Chandragupta blew up in ‘09, though, we didn’t have the capacity to build a replacement locally, and the Germans couldn’t spare a slipway, since they were busy trying to keep pace with British construction. It was decided that it made no sense to operate Ashoka alone, so she was taken out of front-line service and the burden of combat passed to the cruisers.

AWNR: Now, how busy have you been of late?

VI: Well, to put it in perspective, our ship crews at the end of 1918 totalled about five thousand. By the end of this year, we’ll be up to almost twelve thousand. So we’ve more than doubled in size in four years, meaning that we have a lot of young, inexperienced crewmen out there. Every one of those lads had at least a semester in the college and another on a ship.

AWNR: Has the training suffered as a result?

VI: No...no, I wouldn’t say so. We had sufficient lead time to plan for most of the increase - the new cruisers and destroyers, mostly. We were also able to employ a number of retired or discharged men who had been injured during the war and could no longer perform full-time naval careers. Captain Sunil Ramesh, for example, has lectured extensively on surface combat techniques.

VI: The two battleship crews could have been a problem, but the South Africans came through for us - part of the purchase agreement, as you’ll recall, included training for the crew of the Dara Shikoh. When we bought Babur, we basically split the original battleship crew in half. It hurt their readiness in late '21, but both ships are now up to standard.

AWNR: How about officer training? How does that work?

VI: It’s a bit of a holdover from the early years, when we had German officers. When the decision was made to replace the junior officers in 1891, the Navy decided it was better to promote experienced enlisted men, rather than have an entire cadre of inexperienced new officers who’d never been on a tour. It worked out well, for the most part, and so the system has stayed that way, with the original enlisted men in some cases now holding flag rank. Right now, any enlisted man can apply for officer training after serving two years or more. If they are screened in, we then have specialized courses here at the college for them.

AWNR: Is the crunch over now? Will things quiet down?

VI: Our longer term planning assumes that the navy will be close to its Cleito Treaty limits by 1930, and we have a general sense of what’s being built and when. Depending on the specifics, we expect our ship crews will total between 28,000 and 30,000 at that time. That’s an increase of at least 16,000 over our current total. Obviously, a number of men will also be leaving the service in that timeframe, so we’ll have to replace them as well. Essentially, we think it’s reasonable to assume that we need to continue training at least 3,000 men a year. We can work with that.

AWNR: You have the faculty and lecturing facilities you need - what about the ships?

VI: We’ll need some new vessels very soon - even with the South African help we had, our ships have about hit their capacity. Ashoka hasn’t got a lot of time left in her career, she’s now almost thirty years old, and Mysore isn’t much younger. We’re hoping to acquire one or two of the Calcutta class cruisers as they get retired in the latter part of the decade, probably also one of our existing battleships as they’re replaced. Perhaps a couple of the destroyers as well. We’re not so sure how we’ll deal with naval aviation - we’d love to take over Otta , but the treaty has been interpreted as not allowing carriers to be retained for training purposes.

AWNR: Thank you, Commodore.

VI: Thank you.


Addendum: India’s Naval Training Command forces

SR Ashoka is the flagship of the Naval Training Command. A Brandenburg -class battleship, she was ordered by the Indian navy in 1891 from Kaiserliche Werft (Wilhelmshaven) and was commissioned in 1894. She, along with her sister Chandragupta , the protected cruisers Mysore, Surat , and Patna , and eight torpedo-boats were known as the “First Fleet”, vessels built in Germany between 1889 and 1896. Ashoka saw action at the liberation of Diego Garcia, when the fleet surprised and overwhelmed a depleted Iberian squadron. After Chandragupta was destroyed by a magazine explosion in 1909, the ship was deleted to a training capacity. She saw no service during the Andaman War, though her use was contemplated more than once. She displaces 10,970 tons, and is currently armed with two twin 10.2", six single 4.1", and about eight lighter guns as well as submerged 17.7" torpedo tubes. A thirty-five caliber, 10.2" gun mounted amidships was removed in 1911 for use as a defensive battery at Mumbai.

SR Mysore is a Wacht -class protected cruiser, ordered from A. G. Weser (Bremen) in 1889 and commissioned in 1891. Mysore was flagship of the fleet when India brought the Maldive Islands into the empire in 1892, and saw action at Diego Garcia, suffering significant damage that put her out of service until 1900. Mysore was stationed along the west coast until 1919; she saw no action during the Andaman War, instead being tasked to monitor British activity off Pakistan. She was relegated to training duties when the light cruiser Columbo was commissioned. She displaces 1,250 tons, and is currently armed with three 4.1", two 3.5", and six lighter guns, her torpedoes having been taken out of service in 1919.

SR L-97 and L-99 were built at Schichau, Germany in 1888 and saw service in coastal duties until being replaced by locally built torpedo boats in 1910. Neither ship saw action during their careers, though both were used extensively in anti-smuggling operations in the east. Displacing just 96 tons, they are currently equipped with a 0.6" machine gun and a pair of 17.7" torpedo tubes.

SR Vikrant was a motor yacht purchased from a private owner in 1903. The ship saw use as a surveying vessel in the Maldives for much of her career. She was refitted as a sloop in 1915, with one 1.4" cannon, one 0.6" machine gun, and twelve depth charges. Assigned to NTC in 1918, she serves as an anti-submarine training platform.

SR IX-01 is an I-class vessel commissioned in 1921 after being built in South Africa. After working up in Uruguay, the submarine sailed to Indian waters in early 1922. She is now used in a training capacity as an “enemy” for surface forces needing ASW training, and is also being used operationally to develop submarine doctrines. Her displacement is 450 t, and she is armed with a 4.1" cannon and five 19.7" torpedo tubes.