30 Dec :Vice Admiral Dilip Deshpande, AVSM,VSM takes over as the Chief of Materiel (COM) on 31 Dec 08. He takes over as the Principal Staff Officer(PSO) of the Materiel branch from Vice Admiral BS Randhawa who proceeds on retirement today.
Vice Admiral Dilip Deshpande was commissioned in the Indian Navy on 18 Sep 1969. After initial training onboard INS Mysore, he was appointed for Marine Engineering Duties on INS Sagardeep. He participated in the 1971 operations on the Western Sea board.
He was trained in Aeronautical Engineering at the Air Force Technical College in Bangalore and has an experience on a number of fixed and rotary wing aircraft. He has been involved in the acquisition and maintenance of a wide variety of aircraft, both fixed wing as well as helicopters.
During a career spanning over 38 years he has held a number of distinguished appointments. In addition to Air Engineer Officer of Air Squadron 561, he was the Production Department Head at Naval Aircraft Yard (Kochi), Head of the Base Maintenance Facility (Goa), Commodore Superintendent of NSRY (Kochi) and Oi/c FMU(Mb). He has also handled various appointments at NHQ including that of Director of Naval Air Materiel.
As a Flag Officer, the Admiral was the Chief Staff Officer (Technical) at both the Western as well as the Eastern Naval Command Headquarters, the Admiral Superintendent Naval Dockyard (Visakhapatnam), ACOM (D&R) and till yesterday, the Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition(CWP&A). He is an alumnus of the College of Naval Warfare and the National Defence College and has been awarded with Ati Vishisht Seva Medal(AVSM) and Vishisht Seva Medal(VSM) for his meritorious service.