Commandant of the Air Force Academy (India)

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Commandant of the
Air Force Academy
since June 2025
Reports to Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command
Seat Dundigal, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Website indianairforce.nic.in/air-force-academy/

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 Praveen Keshav Vohra.

Contents

History

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

S.NoNameAppointment DateLeft OfficeNotes
1 Air commodore J. D. Aquino, AVSM 8 March 197028 June 1972First commandant. [1]
2 Air commodore Lakshman Madhav Katre, AVSM 16 November 197226 December 1975Later Chief of the Air Staff.
3 Air Vice Marshal H. R. Chitnis, AVSM , VM 5 January 1976 [n 1] 2 May 1977Later 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 197814 August 1978Later Vice Chief of the Air Staff
5 Air Vice Marshal Balwant Wickram Chauhan, AVSM 14 August 197823 October 1979Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Central Air Command.
6 Air Vice Marshal Terence Joseph Desa24 October 19796 April 1981Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command.
7 Air Vice Marshal Rajagopal Sriramulu Naidu, VM 13 April 198125 June 1983Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command.
8 Air Vice Marshal Cecil Vivian Parker, MVC , VM 1 July 198320 March 1985
9 Air Vice Marshal Jagdish Kumar Seth, AVSM , VM 25 March 19857 February 1986Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command.
10 Air Vice Marshal Har Krishan Oberai, AVSM , VM 22 March 198630 December 1987
11 Air Vice Marshal Eric Lionel Allen, AVSM , VM 19 January 198828 February 1990 [2]
12 Air Vice Marshal Manjunath Sadanand, AVSM 5 March 199030 November 1991
13 Air Vice Marshal P. K. Mani, VM 2 December 199130 September 1993
14 Air Vice Marshal Krishnan Narayan Nair, VM 1 October 199320 December 1995Later 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 199517 August 1998Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command.
16 Air Vice Marshal Jogendra Singh Sisodia, AVSM , VM 18 August 199831 July 2000
16 Air Vice Marshal Subhash Bhojwani, AVSM , VSM 1 August 20005 June 2002Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command.
17 Air Vice Marshal Vinod Kumar Verma, VM , VSM 1 July 200211 January 2004Later Inspector General of Flight Safety. [3]
18 Air Vice Marshal Yashwant Rao Rane, AVSM , VM 12 January 200431 August 2005Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command.
19 Air Vice Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja, AVSM , VSM 1 September 200529 February 2008Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command.
20 Air Vice Marshal K. J. Mathews, AVSM , YSM 1 March 200831 August 2009Later Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Forces Command. [4]
21 Air Vice Marshal Amit Aneja, AVSM , VM , VSM 1 September 200931 March 2011 [5]
22 Air Marshal Priya Ranjan Sharma, AVSM 1 April 201131 December 2012 [6]
23 Air Marshal R. G. Burli, VM 1 January 201330 June 2014 [7]
24 Air Marshal Gurinder Pal Singh, VM 1 July 201430 November 2016 [8]
25 Air Marshal Amit Tiwari, VM 1 December 20163 September 2018Later 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 201813 October 2019Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command. [11]
27 Air Marshal Jonnalagedda Chalapati, VSM 14 October 201931 July 2020Current Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command. [12] [13]
28 Air Marshal Vipin Indira Panabhan Nayar, AVSM , VM 1 August 202031 July 2021Earlier Commandant of the National Defence Academy. [14]
29 Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor, AVSM , VM 1 August 202131 October 2021Later Commandant of the National Defence Academy. [15]
30 Air Marshal Sreekumar Prabhakaran, AVSM , VM 1 November 202128 February 2022Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Air Command.
31 Air Marshal B Chandra Sekhar, AVSM 1 March 202231 August 2023 [16]
32 Air Marshal Seethepalli Shrinivas, VSM 1 September 202331 May 2025 [17]
33 Air Marshal Praveen Keshav Vohra, AVSM , VM 1 June 2025IncumbentCurrent Commandant

See also

Notes

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

References

  1. 1 2 "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. 1 2 "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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