Former Vice Chief of the Indian Army Lieutenant General NS Raja Subramani (retd) has been appointed as the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). He will succeed Gen Anil Chauhan, who retires on May 31.The Government has also appointed Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, the present Western Navy Commander, as the next Chief of the Indian Navy. He will succeed Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, who is retiring from service on May 31.Vice Admiral Krishna SwaminathanBoth appointments were announced on Saturday morning.The government order announcing the appointment of Lt Gen Subramani as CDS stated that he “will continue until further orders”.As per existing rules, the CDS serves till attaining 65 years of age. The Government can also appoint retired officers of the rank of Lieutenant General to the post.Lt Gen Subramani has in the past commanded the Central Army—tasked to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.After being appointed as CDS , he will also serve as Secretary, Department of Military Affairs. Lt Gen NS Subramani is currently serving as Military Adviser in the National Security Council Secretariat, a position he assumed charge on September 1 last year.He was commissioned into the 8th Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles on December 14, 1985. He is an alumnus of the Joint Services Command Staff College in Bracknell. UK, and the National Defence College in New Delhi.During his career, he commanded 16 Garhwal Rifles in counter-insurgency operations in Assam as part of Operation Rhino, 168 Infantry Brigade in Jammu and Kashmir, and 17 Mountain Division in the Central Sector during a challenging operational environment. He also commanded 2 Corps, the Indian Army’s premier strike corps on the western front.He has also served as Defence Attache in Kazakhstan.Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan has been appointed the next Navy Chief. Commissioned into the Indian Navy on July 01, 1987, he is a specialist in communication and electronic warfare.An alumnus of the National Defence Academy at Khadakvasla, the Joint Services Command and Staff College in Shrivenham, UK, the College of Naval Warfare at Karanja, and the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode lsland, Vice Admiral Swaminathan has held several key operational, staff and training appointments in his naval career.He has commanded missile vessels INS Vidyut and INS Vinash, the missile corvette INS Kulish, the guided missile destroyer INS Mysore, and the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.