31-May-2020: ANC gets a new Commander-in-Chief.

There are about 19 military commands in the country and only two of them are tri-service commands – Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) and the Strategic Forces Command.

Based in Port Blair, the ANC was created in 2001 to safeguard India’s strategic interests in Southeast Asia and the Strait of Malacca by increasing rapid deployment of military assets in the region.

It provides logistical and administrative support to naval ships which are sent on deployment to East Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Its components include the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard. It is headed by an officer called the Commander-in-Chief of the ANC.

It patrols India’s Exclusive Economic Zone to suppress gun running, narcotics smuggling, piracy, and poaching, and conducts maritime surveillance, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). The other tri-service command, the Strategic Forces Command, was set up in 2003 to handle the country’s nuclear arsenal.