Ministry of Defence
02-October, 2018 10:03 IST
Air Marshal Amit Dev VSM takes over as the Director General Air (OPS)
Air Marshal Amit Dev VSM, graduated from National Defence Academy in December 1981 and was commissioned in the Indian Air Force, in the fighter stream of Flying Branch, on 29 Dec 1982.
He has flown various types of fighter and trainer aircraft in the inventory of IAF and has approximately 2500 hours of flying experience. He is an alumnus of Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment, Defence Services Staff College, College of Air Warfare and National Defence College.
In his 36 years of illustrious service, he has held important field and staff appointments that includes command of a fighter squadron, Air Defence Direction Centre, an operational fighter base and Advance HQ, South Western Air Command. He has served as Joint Director Tactical Operations, Director Air Staff Inspection, Principal Director Air Staff Inspection and Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Inspection), at Air HQ. The Air Officer was Air-I of Central Air Command and Chief Staff Officer (Air Vector) at Strategic Forces Command.
He was commended by the Chief of the Air Staff in 1995 and awarded Vishisht Seva Medal for distinguished service in 2010.
Ministry of Defence
02-October, 2018 10:00 IST
Air Marshal VR Chaudhari AVSM VM takes over as the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff
Air Marshal VR Chaudhari AVSM VM was commissioned into Fighter Stream of the IAF on 29 Dec 1982. He is an alumni of the National Defence Academy. The Air Officer has flown various aircraft and is experienced on MiG-21, MiG-23MF, MiG-29 and SU-30MKI with a flying experience over 3800 hrs. He is a Cat A Qualified Flying Instructor, a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College and an Instrument Rating Instructor and Examiner. The Air Marshal has a rich experience of operational flying, having undertaken numerous Air Defence missions during Op-Meghdoot and Op-Safed Sagar.
The Air Officer has been an Air Force Examiner on several types of fighter and trainer aircraft. He commanded a MiG-29 Squadron and served as the Chief Operations Officer of Air Force Station Srinagar. He commanded a forward base before taking over as Air I at HQ CAC IAF. He has been an Instructor at DSSC Wellington as well as DSCSC at Zambia. He served as the AA to the CAS and later commanded Air Force Station Pune. On promotion to AVM, he tenanted the appointment of Deputy Commandant Air Force Academy and as ACAS Ops (Air Defence). Before taking over as Deputy Chief of the Air Staff he was the Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Personnel Officers).
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Ministry of Defence
02-October, 2018 09:57 IST
Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar AVSM VM & BAR takes over Command as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command
Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar took over as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Air Command of Indian Air Force on 01 October 2018.
Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and was commissioned in the IAF as Fighter Pilot in June 1981.
He is an Experimental Test Pilot and has flown 42 types of aircraft as Pilot in Command. He has the distinction of having the highest number of flying hours on the Mirage-2000 in the IAF, with over 2300 flying hrs on the aircraft to his credit, and a total of 5100 hrs of flying experience. He is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and was the Project Test Pilot for the Light Combat Aircraft “Tejas”.
Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar has been a Flight commander of a Mirage-2000 Squadron, the Senior Test Pilot and Commanding Officer of the Flight Test Squadron at Aircraft System Testing Establishment (ASTE). He has commanded the oldest Squadron of the IAF, the prestigious No. 1 Squadron. He flew the Mirage-2000 in combat during the Kargil conflict and has flown 25 operational missions. He was the Director of Space Applications at Air HQ and the Chief Operations Officer of Air Force Stn Gwalior. He was posted to Embassy of India in Israel as the Defence Attaché. He was the Principle Director of Offensive Operations at Air HQ. The Air Officer has also held the appointments of Air Officer Commanding Air Force Station Jamnagar, Commandant ASTE, Air Defence Commander Western Air Commander, Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) of Southern Air Command, Training Command and EAC. Before taking over as the AOC-in-C of EAC, he was the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff.
Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar was awarded the Vayu Sena Medal for Gallantry by the President of India for the Kargil Operations. He was awarded a Bar to the Vayu Sena Medal for flight testing the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) in 2002, during its first phase of flight testing. He was commended by the Chief of Air Staff in 1991 and by the C-in-C of Strategic Force Command in 2005. He was awarded the Ati Vishist Seva Medal in 2015.
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Ministry of Defence
02-October, 2018 09:55 IST
Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora AVSM takes over Command as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief South Western Air Command
Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora AVSM took over as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), South Western Air Command at Gandhinagar on 01 Oct 18. He succeeds Air Mshl RK Dhir PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC who retired on 30 Sep 18.
The Air Marshal was commissioned in the Indian Air Force as a fighter pilot in Dec 1981. He has rich and diverse experience of accident free operational flying which includes MiG 21, MiG 29 and other aircraft in IAF inventory, including helicopters. He is a meritorious graduate of Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment, Defence Services Staff College and National Defence College. He is also Master of Philosophy in Defence and Strategic Studies.
Air Officer commanded a MiG-21 Bis Sqn in the South Western sector and later was Commander of Air Defence Direction Centre in the same sector. He went on to command a premier MiG-29 Base on the western border and as an Air Vice Marshal he was Air Defence Commander at Headquarters of Western Air Command as well as Eastern Air Command. As an Air Marshal he has held the appointments of Director General (Inspection and Safety) and was Director General Air (Operations) at Air HQ before taking over as the AOC-in-C.
He has also served as Directing Staff at ‘Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment’ and as a Flying Inspector in the ‘Directorate of Air Staff Inspection’. He was Defence Attache in the Embassy of India, Bangkok, Thailand from 2006 to 2009.
For his distinguished service, he was awarded ‘Ati Vishisht Seva Medal’ by the President of India on 26 Jan 2011.
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