The Flag Officer Submarines (FOSM) is the single-point class authority of submarines in the Indian Navy. A two star officer holding the rank of Rear Admiral, the FOSM is responsible for submarine safety, submarine training, maintenance and operating schedules and operational readiness inspections. The current FOSM is Rear Admiral Sameer Sanjay Pote who assumed office on 1 May 2026.

History

The submarine arm of the Indian Navy was formed with the commissioning of in December 1967. Three other submarines – , and were acquired from the Soviet Union and the 8th Submarine squadron was formed. The submarine base INS Virbahu in Visakhapatnam was commissioned on 19 May 1971 as the shore support base for submarines. The Commanding Officer of Virbahu functioned as the Captain of the submarine squadron and the class Authority for all submarines.

In 1985, the Navy's Command and Control structure was streamlined. To rationalise Command and Control of the Submarine Arm, a single-point class authority was constituted which would be located at the Submarine Headquarters in Visakhapatnam. This authority would be responsible for all training and maintenance of submarines, analogous to Flag Officer Naval Aviation (FONA). The authority was christened Flag Officer Submarines (FOSM) and Rear Admiral Arun Auditto, took over as the first FOSM. The FOSM was to be responsible to NHQ for all Class Authority and training functions in regard to submarines. The FOSM would be under the administrative control of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command. (FOC-in-C ENC), but interact with the FOC-in-C of both Eastern Naval Command and Western Naval Command on all matters related to his charter of duties.

In the 1990s, the need for a senior officer at Naval headquarters was felt. The officer would impart senior level advice on submarine matters. On 14 October 1996, the appointment of Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Submarines) (ACNS SM) was created. Rear Admiral Arun Kumar Singh, took over as the first ACNS (SM). He also dual-hatted as the FOSM. While the policy decisions were taken by the FOSM, the administration of the submarine HQ was carried out by a Commodore. The ACNS functioned under the Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. In January 2001, the post of ACNS (SM) was instituted as a separate billet. The ACNS (SM) is based at NHQ while the FOSM is based at Visakhapatnam.

Structure The submarine base INS Virbahu and the submarine training school INS Satavahana come under the FOSM. INS Satavahana, being a training establishment comes under the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command since the command is the training command of the Navy. FOSM provides necessary support to FOC-in-C South for technical aspects of submarine training.

List of FOSM S.No. Name Assumed office Left office Notes1Rear Admiral Arun Auditto 1 May 198731 July 1988First FOSM.2Rear Admiral J. M. S. Sodhi 1 August 1988 24 March 1991Later served as Fortress Commander, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.3Rear Admiral R. N. Ganesh 25 March 199111 October 1992Later served as Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, Fortress Commander, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Director General of the Indian Coast Guard and Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command.4Rear Admiral S. C. Anand 12 October 199231 October 19965Rear Admiral Arun Kumar Singh 1 November 19969 March 2000Later served as Director General of the Indian Coast Guard, Commander-in-Chief, Andaman and Nicobar Command and Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command.6Rear Admiral R. K. Sharma 10 March 20005 November 20017Rear Admiral Arun Kumar Singh 6 November 200124 June 2002Second tenure.8Rear Admiral K. N. Sushil 25 June 200215 August 2005Later served as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command.9Rear Admiral A. Y. Kalaskar 16 August 200531 August 2006Later served as FOMA.10Rear Admiral Pradeep Kumar Chatterjee 1 September 200625 November 2008Later served as Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff and Commander-in-Chief, Andaman and Nicobar Command.11Rear Admiral M. T. Moraes 26 November 200828 July 2011Later Inspector General Nuclear Safety.12Rear Admiral Srikant29 July 201121 September 2012Later served as Commandant of the National Defence College and Director General Project Seabird.13Rear Admiral S. V. Bhokare 22 September 201224 September 2015Later Inspector General Nuclear Safety.14Rear Admiral Sanjay Mahindru 25 September 201510 October 2016Later Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff15Rear Admiral Vennam Srinivas 11 October 20165 February 2020Current Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command.16Rear Admiral A. Y. Sardesai5 February 2020 31 March 2023Current Inspector General Nuclear Safety 17Rear Admiral K. Venkatraman 1 April 20231 Sept 202418Rear Admiral Chetan C Chandegave1 Sept 202430 April 2026 19Rear Admiral Sameer Sanjay Pote 1 May 2026PresentCurrent FOSM

See also Commodore Commanding Submarines (East) Commodore Commanding Submarines (West)

Notes

References

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