11 sailors from foreign navies complete gunnery course

Eleven sailor trainees from friendly foreign navies today completed their 21-week 'Gunnery Instructor'(Foreign) course at INS Dronacharya.
A passing out parade was conducted at INS Dronacharya at Southern Naval Command here to mark the culmination of the course.
The parade was reviewed by Commodore Simon Mathai, Commanding Officer INS Dronacharya, who also distributed awards for academic excellence to the participants.
Flag Officer Commanding-In-Chief South Rolling Trophy and Book Prize was presented to MD Faruk Hossain, Petty Officer of Bangladesh for Standing First in Overall Order of merit, a Defence release said.
Jewootah Premlall, Corporal from Mauritius was presented a book Prize for standing second in overall order of merit, it added.

The course had commenced in September last year with 11 sailor trainees from five countries - Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Maldives, Mauritius and Bangladesh.

The course included a scientific orientation phase followed by basic phase to introduce the trainees to gunnery and missile warfare, an instructional phase to expose them to instructional techniques and an equipment phase consisting of training on weapon and sensor systems.
The sailor trainees would now be joining their respective navies as gunnery instructors, who would subsequently train their personnel on their respective frontline warships.
The GI (Foreign) course is conducted every year by INS Dronacharya, the Centre of Excellence for Gunnery and Missile Warfare, towards capacity building and to bolster India's diplomatic ties with friendly foreign countries.