Army’s former Vice-Chief, Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani (retd), was on Saturday appointed the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). He will succeed Gen Anil Chauhan, who retires on May 31.The government also appointed Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, the current Western Navy Commander, as the next Navy Chief. He will succeed Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, who too retires on May 31.The government order on the CDS appointment said Lt Gen Subramani “will continue until further orders”. Under the existing rules, the CDS serves till attaining the age of 65 years. The government can also appoint retired officers who have served in the rank of Lieutenant General as CDS.Widely known as an expert on Pakistan and China, Lt Gen Subramani previously commanded the Central Command, which is responsible for the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.As CDS, he will also serve as the Secretary, Department of Military Affairs. Lt Gen Subramani is currently serving as Military Adviser in the National Security Council Secretariat and assumed the 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 and Staff College, Bracknell (UK), and the National Defence College, New Delhi.During his career, he commanded 16 Garhwal Rifles in counter-insurgency operations in Assam under Operation Rhino, the 168 Infantry Brigade in Jammu and Kashmir and the 17 Mountain Division in the central sector during a challenging operational environment. He also commanded the 2 Corps, the Army’s premier strike corps on the western front. He has also served as Defence Attaché in Kazakhstan.Vice Admiral Krishna SwaminathanVice Admiral Swaminathan was commissioned into the Navy on July 1, 1987, and is a specialist in communication and electronic warfare. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla; the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Shrivenham, UK; the College of Naval Warfare, Karanja; and the United States Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.During his naval career, he has held several key operational, staff and training appointments, including command of the missile vessels INS Vidyut and INS Vinash, missile corvette INS Kulish, the guided missile destroyer INS Mysore and the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.