NEW DELHI: A. P. J. Abdul Kalam will be the first President to undertake an undersea sortie when he sails on a submarine next week off the Vishakapatnam Naval base. A defence scientist himself, Mr. Kalam insisted on adding the sortie to the President's Fleet Review.

Several firsts

Apart from the undersea trip, the review, taking place after five years, will have other firsts, including a mobile review and firepower that will be visible from the shore.

The reason is that this is the first of the nine reviews to take place on the eastern seaboard, where the sea gradient is sharper thus allowing the ships to come closer to the shore. In contrast, the sea slopes gently from the shore on the western flank and the ships are beyond sighting distance from the shore.

While the President spends a few hours in the submarine, he will review the fleet aboard a yacht, INS Sukanya, an offshore patrol vessel of South Korean origin.

"More focus to the East"

"It is time to give a little more focus to the East,'' said Chief of Naval Staff Arun Prakash. "We have exercised recently with the Russian and French navies here. We have also practised with other neighbours too. It is in consonance with the growing strategic importance of the region,'' added Eastern Naval Command chief Sureesh Mehta.

The Presidential Fleet Reviews are held at least once during the five-year tenure of the President but there are exceptions to the norm.

The first President, Rajendra Prasad, held office for 12 years but only one fleet review was conducted. His successor, Sarvapalli Radhakrishan, served for five years but presided over two reviews, one on either side of the 1965 war with Pakistan.

Zakir Hussain, N. Sanjeeva Reddy and Shankar Dayal Sharma did not preside over any review while V. V. Giri's presence coincided with the induction of submarines into the Navy. Zail Singh, R. Venkataraman and K. R. Narayanan presided over a review each.

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