B. Sivakumar

Vice Admiral B. Sivakumar, AVSM, VSM is a serving Flag officer in the Indian Navy. He currently curves as the Chief of Materiel. He earlier served as the Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition and as the Admiral Superintendent Naval Dockyard (Mumbai).

Early life and education Sivakumar attended the National Defence Academy as part of the 70th course and was commissioned into the Indian Navy as an Electrical officer on 1 July 1987.

Naval career Sivakumar attended the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras obtaining a Master of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering. He served onboard multiple frontline warships - the Rajput-class destroyers , the Khukri-class corvette and the Abhay-class corvette as Electrical officer.

Sivakumar served in both the naval dockyards in east and west - Naval Dockyard (Mumbai) and Naval Dockyard (Visakhapatnam). He attended the Higher Defence Management course at the College of Defence Management, Secunderabad. On 26 January 2015, he was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal.

As a Commodore, he commanded the premier Electrical Training Base, INS Valsura. In 2017, he was selected to attend the National Defence College as part of the 57th course. He headed both electrical directorates at naval headquarters - weapons equipment and electrical engineering. On 24 February 2021, he was appointed the Admiral Superintendent of Naval Dockyard (Mumbai) (ASD Mumbai). After a year-long tenure, he moved to NHQ as the Assistant Chief of Materiel (Information Technology & Systems). For his tenure as ASD Mumbai, he was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal on 26 January 2022.

In 2023, he was promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral and appointed Programme Director of the Advanced Technology Vessel Project. After a short tenure, he took over as the Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition (CWP&A) from Vice Admiral Kiran Deshmukh on 1 January 2024. A year later, on 30 January 2025, he relinquished charge of CWP&A to Vice Admiral Rajaram Swaminathan and took over as the Director General Naval Projects (Visakhapatnam) the next day from Vice Admiral Srinivasan Gopinathan.

On 1 November 2025, he was appointed Chief of Materiel, a principal staff officer (PSO) at NHQ. He took over from Vice Admiral Kiran Deshmukh. He is the Senior most Technical Officer in the Indian Navy.

Awards and decorations Sivakumar was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal in 2015 and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2022.