Overview
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh virtually flagged off Samudra Pradakshina from Mumbai’s Gateway of India.
- Ten officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force will sail about 26,000 nautical miles over nine months on a 50-foot, Puducherry-built Class A yacht.
- The crew will cross the Equator twice, round Capes Leeuwin, Horn and Good Hope, and call at Fremantle, Lyttelton, Port Stanley and Cape Town before a planned May 2026 return.
- Lt Col Anuja Varudkar leads the team with Sqn Ldr Shraddha P. Raju as deputy after a three-year training program that included a Mumbai–Seychelles trial voyage.
- The Southern Ocean leg, including Cape Horn between December 2025 and February 2026, is identified as the most hazardous due to extreme weather and sea states.