Admiral Gurtej Singh Pabby is presently the Chief of Materiel of the Indian Navy based at Naval Headquarters in New Delhi. He spearheads the Strategic Guidance, Apex Policy level Decision making and Future Acquisition Plan of Warships and equipment of the Indian Navy. He graduated from NIT (Erstwhile REC) Kurukshetra in 1980 and did his post-graduation in System and Control Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1987.
Admiral has steered many challenging professional issues and has left lasting footprints with his clear thought process and telescopic vision. He was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral in 2009, and was appointed as the Chief Staff Officer (Technical) at Western Naval Command. Thereafter, he took on as Admiral Superintendent, Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam, where he provided Technical Leadership in early completion of refits of ships and submarines. As Director General Naval Projects at Mumbai, he oversaw creation of major repair and Marine infrastructure. As a Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition, he has steered large indigenisation projects of warship and submarine construction.
At the Helm of the Materiel Branch of the Navy, the Admiral has given immense impetus towards development and induction of new technologies like Air Independent Propulsion, Magnetic Bearing for AC Compressors, Canned Motor Pumps and indigenisation of Gas Turbines. He has been at the forefront of Navy’s green initiatives such as MARPOL Compliance, Diesel Exhaust Emission Control and use of biofuels.
The Admiral has also interacted extensively with professional bodies, institutes, academia and the Indian industries to encourage their participation, particularly the IITs and MSMEs, in construction of equipment for ships and submarines for the Indian Navy and, undertaking R&D as well as Indigenisation projects.
Admiral has been member of Institute of Marine Engineers (India), IMEI since the last three decades and has been holding IMEI fellowship since August 2017. In the recently conducted IMEI event INMARCO at Mumbai, the Admiral chaired a session on “Ship-building in India” which saw participation of CMDs of Indian DPSU and private shipyards as well as regional Shipyards of IOR region.
Admiral was awarded Param Vishisht Seva Medal on January 26, 2019 for his distinguished service of the most exceptional order by the President of India.