Southern Naval Command, Kochi: What It Is and What It Trains

Southern Naval Command, headquartered at INS Venduruthy on Willingdon Island, is the Indian Navy's dedicated training command and, by the Navy's own description, its largest command. It was raised to full three-star, Vice Admiral-led status in October 1977, though naval activity at Kochi traces back to 1947. Vice Admiral Sameer Saxena has held the post of Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief since 31 October 2025, taking over from Vice Admiral Vennam Srinivas.

• What is Southern Naval Command's role?
• Where is it headquartered?
• What does INS Dronacharya train sailors to do?
• Is the Indian Naval Academy part of Southern Naval Command?

What Is Southern Naval Command's Role?

Unlike the Western and Eastern Naval Commands, which run operational fleets, Southern Naval Command's job is training, covering every Indian Navy officer and sailor from their first day in uniform through advanced specialisation. Its reach extends well beyond Kerala: subordinate training establishments run from Jamnagar in Gujarat to Lonavala in Maharashtra, with further facilities in Goa and Odisha, all administratively answering to the command headquartered in Kochi. The Flag Officer Sea Training and the 1st Training Squadron, which puts cadets through sea-going training on Navy vessels, both fall under this same command. Flag Officer Sea Training, instituted in 1992 and headed by a two-star officer, is the authority that certifies every Indian Navy and Coast Guard ship and submarine crew as combat-ready, running work-up drills in navigation, damage control, firefighting, weapon firings and seamanship through four dedicated teams based at Kochi, Mumbai and Visakhapatnam. It trains friendly foreign navies too, alongside its main job of certifying Indian crews.

Where Is It Headquartered?

The command's headquarters sit at INS Venduruthy on Willingdon Island, which also holds the distinction of being the Indian Navy's largest single training establishment. Willingdon Island itself is a reclaimed island shared between the Navy, the Cochin Port Trust and Kochi's commercial waterfront, so a visitor arriving by the Kochi Water Metro or a harbour ferry will pass naval, port and civilian installations within a few hundred metres of each other, a layout that dates to the island's original construction in the early twentieth century.

What Does INS Dronacharya Train Sailors to Do?

INS Dronacharya is the Navy's gunnery school, commissioned on 27 November 1978. It trains roughly 820 officers and 2,100 sailors and Agniveers every year, along with personnel from the Indian Coast Guard, in small arms, naval missile systems, artillery, radar and defensive countermeasures. Officers from friendly foreign navies attend courses here too, and visiting chiefs of foreign navies, including from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in recent years, have included a stop at Dronacharya on their Kochi itineraries.

Is the Indian Naval Academy Part of Southern Naval Command?

Yes. The Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala in Kannur district, over 300 km north of Kochi, falls under Southern Naval Command's administrative umbrella even though it sits in a different district entirely. Established on 8 January 2009 across 2,452 acres along the North Malabar coast, it is described as Asia's largest and the world's third-largest naval academy, and it runs the basic training that every officer entering the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard must complete before moving on to specialised schools like Dronacharya.

Unit	Role	Location
INS Venduruthy	Command HQ; Navy's largest training establishment	Willingdon Island, Kochi
INS Dronacharya	Gunnery school, commissioned 1978	Kochi
Indian Naval Academy	Basic officer training, est. 2009	Ezhimala, Kannur district
1st Training Squadron	Sea-going cadet training	Multiple, under Kochi command

For the island's own construction history, our piece on how Willingdon Island was built covers the reclamation project that created the land the Navy now shares with the port. The civilian side of that same island, the Cochin Port Trust's operations, is covered separately in our Cochin Port Authority explainer. Visitors wanting to see naval history up close rather than read about the command structure should start with our Naval Maritime Museum visiting guide.