A fromidable naval fleet of warships and submarines gives the country a power projection capability that has been used time and again to deter unwarranted misadventures. The Indian navy packs a punch. There are sophisticated electrical and electronic weapon systems on board. Since the mid-forties when electrical systems were first inducted into naval use, electrical engineering and technology application have steadily advanced. This has made the task of the maintainer, the electrical officer, more challenging. Day-to-day operational requirements at sea must be met even in the face of limited availability of spares, or in cases, absence of detailed maintainer manuals.The problem for the Indian navy is further compounded by the presence of systems acquired from indigenous as well as foreign sources. Development of viable interfaces to ensure inter-operability is an important responsibility of the personnel manning the naval R&D units. The school that imparts training to the electrical branch of the Indian Navy, INS Valsura, celebrates 60 years of its existence in December 2002. Its motto is: ‘The light that emanates from here, illuminates the world’.Situated on Rozi island, about eight km from Jamnagar in Gujarat, INS Valsura was set up in 1942 by the Royal Indian Navy as a small torpedo training school to cater primarily for the immediate needs of the Second World War. The waters in the Gulf of Kutch were considered appropriate for the purpose. In 1946, however, the torpedo training school transformed itself into an electrical training school. Spread over 500 km, INS Valsura trains all the electrical officers and men of the Indian Navy, besides the officers of the navies of some friendly foreign countries. It provides training infrastructure and education to the personnel of the electrical branch ranging from those who are matriculates and diploma holders to those who have a degree in electrical engineering. Four schools, the Basic Electrical School, the Electrical Technology School, Electrical Equipment School and Centre for Advanced Training provide the necessary theoretical and practical grounding to the personnel.Training plays a very important role today as technological obsolescence sets in much faster than ever before. The electrical engineer is required to keep himself abreast of the latest developments and there is little scope for complacency. The training design and evaluation division of INS Valsura, therefore, is required to constantly update its training programme and regimen to include new subjects, issues and equipment.Modernisation of naval vessels and their technology is critical for India. In order to perform the vital functions of securing India’s shores, maintaining freedom of movement in critical sea lanes of communication, ensuring energy security, keeping Indian waters free of drug running, arms smuggling and terrorists, and checking other kinds of maritime piracy, naval ships are required to undergo necessary modernisation. This leads to the induction of even more sophisticated and complex C4I systems, novel energy conversion processes, distributed power generation and rapid power-transfer for high-power electric weapons, sensors and countermeasures. Also, a state-of-art information architecture that is Network Centric with end-to-end seamless shore-to-sea connectivity from the smallest sensor to the larger command centers shall necessitate greater technical expertise and maintenance skills.It is not surprising, therefore, that the Indian navy is now considering the proposition of equipping every naval officer with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Given this reality, the role of INS Valsura can only increase and become more challenging in the years to come. In order to make the requisite trained manpower available for a growing and more modernised fleet, the school shall have to ensure that its trainers and trainees remain at the edge of electrical technology. And then sparks will continue to fly.
