RAdm Arvind Rawal assumed the appointment as Asst Chief of Materiel (Dockyard & Refit) on 28 Jan 2025. The Flag Officer is from 80th course of the National Defence Academy (NDA) and was commissioned into Engineering branch of the Indian Navy on 01 Jul 1992. He completed the Basic Engineering Course (BEC) and the Marine Engineering Specialisation Course (MESC) from INS Shivaji and excelled in both the courses. He specialises in Marine Engineering having completed his AMEC and ME+ from IAT, Pune and Pune University respectively.
Throughout his professional career of over 32 years, the Flag Officer has done several important assignments, prestigious courses and challenging tenures at sea, ashore and overseas. His sea tenures include sea time with 1 TS onboard INS Beas, Watch keeping onboard INS Ranvijay and staff appointments onboard IN Ships Rajput, Ranvijay and indigenously built frigate INS Shivalik. His important staff appointments include Staff Engineer Officer, HQENC; instructor, INS Shivaji; and OiC of Gas Turbine Testing & Tuning team (GTTT), Visakhapatnam. He has served as GM at NSRY(Karwar) during 2016-17 where he was involved in planning and execution of maiden refit of INS Vikramaditya in 2016. Flag Officer has also served at High Commission of India at Victoria, Seychelles as Tech. Advisor. He has commanded his alma mater, i.e.,INS Shivaji in 2021-22. At NHQ, he served in the professional dte. Directorate of Marine Engineering and in Project-75. His appointments at DME include Joint Director, Director and Addl Principle Director at different times and in Project -75 as Cmde (P-75). After elevating to the Flag rank on 01 Feb 24, he was appointed as Director General, Project -75, where he was responsible for delivery of the sixth and the last of the Scorpene submarine, INS Vagsheer and addressing recurring performance and design issues of commissioned P-75 submarines.
The Flag Officer’s educational qualifications include B Sc and B Tech from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Post-Graduation in Mechanical Engineering from Pune University and M Phil in International Security & Strategy from University of Chennai. He has attended NHCC at NWC, Goa and NDC at New Delhi.
RAdm is an avid traveller and enjoys professional reading. His wife, Pooja Gandhi Rawal, is a Commerce Graduate with a PGDBM from Delhi University and is a qualified Technical Writer. She has worked with an international airline and in the IT sector before devoting full time to the family and community service. The couple has one daughter, Mehak, who is a graduate from Lady Sriram College (LSR) and post Graduate from London School of Economics (LSE) and is employed as a Market Research Manager with Gerson Lehman Group (GLG).
