G Ashok Kumar

Personal life and education

Vice Admiral G. Ashok Kumar, AVSM, VSM is an alumnus of Sainik School Amaravathinagar and 60th course of National Defence Academy. He was commissioned into the Executive Branch of the Indian Navy on July 1, 1982. He is a graduate of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and has attended the Army Higher Command Course at Mhow as well as the Expeditionary Operations Course at Quantico, Virginia, USA. He completed his specialisation in Navigation and Direction at Kochi in 1989.

Military career

The Admiral has held various challenging Staff and Command assignments during his distinguished Naval career spanning more than three decades. He was commissioned into the Executive Branch of the Indian Navy on 1 July 1982. He served as the Navigating Officer of Indian Naval Ships Beas, Nilgiri, Ranvir and Vikrant. His other sea tenures include Commanding Officer of INS Kulish and INS Ranvir and Executive Officer on board INS Brahmaputra. Among his shore tenure, the important ones include Staff Officer (Ops/ND) at Indian Naval Work-up Team, Head of Training Team(Navy) at Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, as Defence Advisor at the High Commission of India in Singapore and the Chief Staff Officer (Operations) of the Western Naval Command. On promotion to Flag rank, he has held the important assignments of Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST), Chief of Staff (COS) of Southern Naval Command and Flag Officer Maharashtra and Gujarat (FOMAG). On promotion to the rank of Vice Admiral, he assumed the office of Commandant, National Defence Academy (NDA) on 1 April 15. The Admiral was then appointed as the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (DCNS) on 31 May 2016.