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Commandant of the Air Force Academy (India)

The Commandant of the Air Force Academy is the head and in-charge of all the functioning of the Air Force Academy in India. The Commandant of the Academy is a Three-star rank officer holding the rank of Air marshal. He is supported by the Deputy Commandant, a Two star appointment, the Chief Instructor (Flying) (Air Commodore rank officer) and the Chief Ground Instructor (Air Commodore rank officer). The current Commandant is Air Marshal B Chandra Sekhar.

Commandant of the
Air Force Academy
since September 2023
Reports toAir Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command
SeatDundigal, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Websiteindianairforce.nic.in/air-force-academy/

History

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The foundation stone of the Air Force Academy was laid by the then President of India Dr. Zakir Hussain on 11 October 1967. The academy was established in 1969 and started operations in 1971. The vision was to concentrate most of the ab-initio officer training of the Indian Air Force under one roof. Air Commodore J. D. Aquino, the commandant of the Air Force Flying College Jodhpur, was the first Commandant of the academy.[1]

The appointment was held by an Air commodore till 1976, when it was upgraded to two-star rank. It was further upgraded to three-star rank in 2011.

List of Commandants

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S.No Name Appointment Date Left Office Notes
1 Air commodore J. D. Aquino, AVSM 8 March 1970 28 June 1972 First commandant.[1]
2 Air commodore Lakshman Madhav Katre, AVSM 16 November 1972 26 December 1975 Later Chief of the Air Staff.
3 Air Vice Marshal H. R. Chitnis, AVSM, VM 5 January 1976 [n 1] 2 May 1977 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Maintenance Command.
4 Air Vice Marshal Trilochan Singh Brar, AVSM 3 May 1978 14 August 1978 Later Vice Chief of the Air Staff
5 Air Vice Marshal Balwant Wickram Chauhan, AVSM 14 August 1978 23 October 1979 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Central Air Command.
6 Air Vice Marshal Terence Joseph Desa 24 October 1979 6 April 1981 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command.
7 Air Vice Marshal Rajagopal Sriramulu Naidu, VM 13 April 1981 25 June 1983 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command.
8 Air Vice Marshal Cecil Vivian Parker, MVC, VM 1 July 1983 20 March 1985
9 Air Vice Marshal Jagdish Kumar Seth, AVSM, VM 25 March 1985 7 February 1986 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command.
10 Air Vice Marshal Har Krishan Oberai, AVSM, VM 22 March 1986 30 December 1987
11 Air Vice Marshal Eric Lionel Allen, AVSM, VM 19 January 1988 28 February 1990 [2]
12 Air Vice Marshal Manjunath Sadanand, AVSM 5 March 1990 30 November 1991
13 Air Vice Marshal P. K. Mani, VM 2 December 1991 30 September 1993
14 Air Vice Marshal Krishnan Narayan Nair, VM 1 October 1993 20 December 1995 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command.
15 Air Vice Marshal M. B. Madon, VM & bar 21 December 1995 17 August 1998 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command.
16 Air Vice Marshal Jogendra Singh Sisodia, AVSM, VM 18 August 1998 31 July 2000
16 Air Vice Marshal Subhash Bhojwani, AVSM, VSM 1 August 2000 5 June 2002 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command.
17 Air Vice Marshal Vinod Kumar Verma, VM, VSM 1 July 2002 11 January 2004 Later Inspector General of Flight Safety.[3]
18 Air Vice Marshal Yashwant Rao Rane, AVSM, VM 12 January 2004 31 August 2005 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command.
19 Air Vice Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja, AVSM, VSM 1 September 2005 29 February 2008 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command.
20 Air Vice Marshal K. J. Mathews, AVSM, YSM 1 March 2008 31 August 2009 Later Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Forces Command.[4]
21 Air Vice Marshal Amit Aneja, AVSM, VM, VSM 1 September 2009 31 March 2011 [5]
22 Air Marshal Priya Ranjan Sharma, AVSM 1 April 2011 31 December 2012 [6]
23 Air Marshal R. G. Burli, VM 1 January 2013 30 June 2014 [7]
24 Air Marshal Gurinder Pal Singh, VM 1 July 2014 30 November 2016 [8]
25 Air Marshal Amit Tiwari, VM 1 December 2016 3 September 2018 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Central Air Command.[8][9][10]
26 Air Marshal Arvindra Singh Butola, VM, VSM 4 September 2018 13 October 2019 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command.[11]
27 Air Marshal Jonnalagedda Chalapati, VSM 14 October 2019 31 July 2020 Current Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command.[12][13]
28 Air Marshal Vipin Indira Panabhan Nayar, AVSM, VM 1 August 2020 31 July 2021 Earlier Commandant of the National Defence Academy.[14]
29 Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor, AVSM, VM 1 August 2021 31 October 2021 Later Commandant of the National Defence Academy.[15]
30 Air Marshal Sreekumar Prabhakaran, AVSM, VM 1 November 2021 28 February 2022 Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Air Command.
31 Air Marshal B Chandra Sekhar, AVSM 1 March 2022 31 August 2023 [16]
32 Air Marshal Seethepalli Shrinivas, VSM 1 September 2023 Incumbent Current Commandant.[17]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Appointed as an Air Commodore, promoted to the rank of air vice marshal on 1 April 1976.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Air Force Academy". Indian Air Force: Touch The Sky With Glory. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  2. ^ Sondhi 2015.
  3. ^ Dec 18, TNN /. "AFA introduces a new concept in curriculum | Hyderabad News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 8 April 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Untitled Document". sainiksamachar.nic.in. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  5. ^ "Amit Aneja takes charge as Commandant of AFA". The Hindu. 1 September 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  6. ^ "h11". sainiksamachar.nic.in. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  7. ^ "Air Marshal Burli takes over as chief of Air Force Academy". The Economic Times. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  8. ^ a b "Amit Tiwari takes charge as AFA Commandant". The Hindu. 5 December 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  9. ^ "h21". www.sainiksamachar.nic.in. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  10. ^ "Air Marshal Amit Tiwari takes over as SAC chief". The Hindu. 1 November 2019. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  11. ^ Sep 4, PTI / Updated. "Air Marshal Butola takes over as Commandant of Air Force Academy | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 8 April 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "Air Marshal J. Chalapati takes over as commandant of IAF". The Siasat Daily. 16 October 2019. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  13. ^ "Air Marshal J.Chalapati takes over as SAC chief". The Hindu. 4 October 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  14. ^ "Air Marshal IP Vipin takes over as Commandant of Air Force Academy, Secunderabad". BW Businessworld. 2 August 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  15. ^ India, The Hans (2 August 2021). "Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor takes over as Commandant of Air Force Academy". www.thehansindia.com. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  16. ^ "Air Marshal B Chandra Sekhar takes over as Commandant, Air Force Academy". ThePrint. 8 March 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  17. ^ "Air Marshal S Shrinivas takes over as Commandant Air Force Academy". Telangan Today. 1 September 2023.

Bibliography

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  • Sondhi, Aditya (2015), The Order of the Crest: Tracing the Alumni of Bishop Cotton Boys’ School, Bangalore (1865–2015), Penguin Viking, ISBN 978-0670088003
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