Sanjay Vatsayan

Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, AVSM, NM is a serving Flag officer in the Indian Navy. He currently serves as the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Operations). He previously served as the Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command, as the Deputy Commandant of the National Defence Academy, and as the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet.

Early life and education
Vatsayan graduated from the National Defence Academy, Pune in 1986.

Naval career
Vatsayan was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 1 January 1988. He is a specialist in Gunnery and missile systems. He has completed the staff course at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington Cantonment in 2003 and the higher command course at the Naval War College, Goa in 2010. He has also attended the National Defence College, New Delhi in 2014.

He has served on the Samar-class offshore patrol vessel ICGS Sangram, ICGS C05 and was part of the commissioning crew of the Delhi-class Guided missile destroyer INS Mysore.

Vatsayan has commanded the Veer-class missile vessels INS Vibhuti and INS Nashak, and the Khukri-class corvette INS Kuthar. He was also the Commissioning Commanding Officer of the indigenously-built Shivalik-class Guided missile frigate INS Sahyadri.

Vatsayan, in his staff appointments, has served as the Joint Director of Personnel, Director of Personnel (Policy). He also served as the Director Naval Plans (Perspective Planning) and the Principal Director Naval Plans, all at Naval HQ.

Flag rank
On promotion to Flag Rank in February 2018, Vatsayan took over as the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy and Plans) (ACNS P&P). On 10 February 2020, he assumed the office of the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet, taking over from Rear Admiral Suraj Berry who commanded the Eastern Fleet from 2019 to 2020. For his command of the eastern fleet, he was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal on 26 January 2021. In February 2021, he relinquished command of the Eastern Fleet to Rear Admiral Tarun Sobti and was appointed Deputy Commandant (DepCom) of the National Defence Academy (NDA).

After a short stint as DepCom, NDA, he was promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral and appointed Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command (COS) in December 2021. He served as COS to Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta. After an eighteen month tenure as COS, he moved to the Integrated Defence Staff as the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Operations).