The government on Saturday appointed Lt. Gen. NS Raja Subramani (retd) as the country’s next Chief of Defense Staff and Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan as the new Chief of the Navy.
Orders were issued to announce the two new appointments in the early morning of 9 May.
Subramani will take over as Director Defense and Security on May 30, replacing General Anil Chouhan. Swaminathan will assume her duties on May 31, succeeding Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi.
Who is Lt. Gen. Subramani?
Subramani, who retired as Deputy Chief of Army Staff, is currently the Military Advisor to the National Security Council Secretariat. Swaminathan heads the Western Naval Command based in Mumbai.
Subramani retired as Deputy Commander of the Army on July 31, 2025, after a military career spanning 39 years. He was appointed as a military advisor to the National Security Service last August. An alumnus of the National Defense Academy, Khadakwasla, and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, he was commissioned into the Garhwal Rifles in December 1985. Subramani had previously served as Commander of the Central Army, Lucknow.
The army said earlier that it has keen knowledge and deep understanding of the operational dynamics on the western and northern borders.
He is also an alumnus of the Joint Services Command Staff College, Bracknell, UK, and the National Defense College, New Delhi. He holds a Master of Arts degree from King’s College London and a Master’s degree in Defense Studies from the University of Madras.
Subramani will take over the top job at a pivotal moment as major military reforms are underway in the Defense Ministry, including histrionics. Last September, the government extended General Chouhan’s term for eight months.
About Vice Admiral Swaminathan
Swaminathan previously served as Deputy Chief of the Navy.
He is an alumnus of the National Defense Academy, Khadakvasla; Joint Command and Staff College, Shrivenham, United Kingdom; Naval War College, Karanja; and the US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.
Commissioned into the Indian Navy on 1 July 1987, he is a dedicated communications and electronic warfare officer and has held several key appointments in his career including Chief of the Naval Staff, Controller of Personnel Services and Chief of Staff, Western Naval Command based in Mumbai.
His previous assignments include command of missile ships INS Vidyut and INS Vinash, missile corvette INS Kulish, guided missile destroyer INS Mysore, and aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.
On promotion to the rank of Rear Admiral, he served as Chief Staff Officer (Training) at the Southern Naval Command headquartered in Kochi and played a key role in training across the Navy. He was instrumental in forming the Indian Maritime Safety Team which oversees operational safety in all sectors of the Navy.
