• Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh will take charge as the Chief of the Indian Air Force in the rank of Air Chief Marshal on September 30, succeeding incumbent Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari.

• Air Marshal Singh is presently serving as Vice Chief of the Air Staff. 

• Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari will retire on September 30 after helming the force for three years.

Who is Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh?

• Born on October 27, 1964, Air Marshal Singh was commissioned into the fighter pilot stream of the Indian Air Force in December 1984.

• In his long and distinguished service spanning nearly 40 years, he has served in a variety of command, staff, instructional and foreign appointments.

• An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College and National Defence College, the air officer is a qualified flying instructor and an experimental test pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience on a variety of fixed and rotary wing aircraft.

• The officer has commanded an operational fighter squadron and a frontline air base.

• As a test pilot, he led the MiG-29 upgrade project management team in Moscow. He was also the project director (flight test) at the National Flight Test Centre and was tasked with flight testing of the Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas.

• Air Marshal Singh is taking charge of the IAF amid concerns over delays in the supply of LCA Tejas-Mark 1A variant to the force by state-run aerospace giant Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

• The officer has held important staff appointments of Air Defence Commander at South Western Air Command and Senior Air Staff Officer at Eastern Air Command.

• Prior to assuming the charge of Vice Chief of the Air Staff in February 2023, he was the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command.

• The Air Marshal is a recipient of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal and Ati Vishisht Seva Medal.

Indian Air Force

• Air power is a powerful and flexible tool of national security. Air power has the ability to create strategic outcomes without transiting territories on ground. This makes it a primary instrument of choice. 

• The full-scale utilisation of IAF during conventional wars like the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars, and restricted use during the 1999 Kargil conflict serve to illustrate the point. 

• The strength of India’s air power lies in the IAF with the capabilities of air arms of the other services reinforcing that strength. 

• The Indian Air Force was officially established on October 8, 1932. The IAF  is headquartered in New Delhi. 

• Over the years, the IAF has evolved from a tactical auxiliary arm of the Royal Air Force in India, to an independent professional strategic force which endeavours to be at the forefront of national service. It has played a pivotal role in the country’s security for nearly a century.

• For effective command and control, the IAF has seven commands, under which there are different stations and units located at various places throughout the country. 

They are:

1) Western Air Command

2) Eastern Air Command

3) Central Air Command

4) South Western Air Command

5) Southern Air Command

6) Training Command

7) Maintenance Command.

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