INS Dweeprakshak

INS Dweeprakshak is an Indian Navy naval station on Kavaratti island in the Lakshadweep archipelago, in the Arabian Sea. It comes under the Southern Naval Command.

The base provides support facilities for naval vessels operating from and around the Lakshadweep group, and supports surveillance of the shipping lanes running between the Indian mainland and the Persian Gulf, which pass through the archipelago. Anti-piracy tasking in the Arabian Sea, following the expansion of Somali pirate activity into waters off the Indian west coast, forms part of the operational rationale for the station.

The Indian Navy has deployed detachments to the Lakshadweep Islands since independence and has maintained permanent facilities on Kavaratti since the 1980s. These were expanded and formally commissioned as INS Dweeprakshak on 30 April 2012 by Vice Admiral Krishnan Nair Sushil, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command. Captain S. M. Hanchinal was the first commanding officer.