Vice Chief of the Air Staff (India)

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Vice Chief of the Air Staff
Flag of Air marshal (India).svg
Flag of Air Marshal
Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari.jpg
since 1 May 2025
Air Force Ensign of India.svg  Indian Air Force
AbbreviationVCAS
Reports to Chief of the Air Staff
Seat Air Headquarters, New Delhi
Appointer ACC
First holderAtma Ram Nanda
Deputy Deputy Chief of the Air Staff

The Vice Chief of the Air Staff (VCAS) is the deputy to the Chief of the Air Staff of India and second-highest ranking officer of the Indian Air Force. The VCAS is a PSO (Principal Staff Officer) at Air Headquarters at New Delhi. In the event that the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) is absent or is unable to perform his duties, the VCAS assumes the duties and responsibilities of the CAS. The VCAS is normally held by an officer of three star rank and is held by an air officer of the rank of Air Marshal. [1]

Contents

The current VCAS is Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari. He succeeded Air Marshal Sujeet Pushpakar Dharkar to the post on 1 May 2025. As Vice Chief, Air Marshal N Tiwari will directly be in charge of IAF's ongoing capability build-up and visualizing its future technology requirements. [2]

History

At the time of independence of India on 15 August 1947, Air Commodore Subroto Mukerjee was appointed Deputy Air Commander, Royal Indian Air Force, in addition to being Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) at the newly-formed Air HQ. [3] On 15 November the same year, he was promoted to the acting rank of Air Vice Marshal. In 1949, the RIAF was reorganised and the post was re-designated Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS). The DCAS continued to be the Deputy Air Commander. On 1 January 1963, the post of Vice Chief of the Air Staff was created and became the second-highest post of the Indian Air Force. [4]

The office of VCAS was first held by D. A. R. Nanda. The appointment was then in the two-star rank of air vice marshal. [4] On 15 January 1966, the office was raised to the three-star rank of Air Marshal and Pratap Chandra Lal was promoted to the rank. [5]

Order of Precedence

The VCAS ranks at No. 23 on the Indian order of precedence, along with the Vice Chiefs of Staff of the Indian Army and Indian Navy and the Army Commanders (GOC-in-C), Naval Commanders (FOC-in-C) and Air Commanders (AOC-in-C). [6] The VCAS is at the Apex Pay grade (Grade 17), with a monthly pay of ₹225,000 (US$3,200). [7]

Appointees

No.RankNameAppointment dateLeft officeReferences
1 Air Vice Marshal Diwan Atma Ram Nanda1 January 19634 August 1963
2 Arjan Singh**5 August 196331 July 1964 [8]
3 Pratap Chandra Lal**1 October 196414 January 1966 [9]
Air Marshal 15 January 19661 September 1966 [9]
4 Ramaswamy Rajaram 13 December 196618 June 1969
5Shivdev Singh15 July 196931 March 1973 [10]
6Yeshwant Vinayak Malse1 April 197330 September 1973
7 Hari Chand Dewan 1 October 197331 March 1976
8Anand Ramdas Pandit1 April 197631 March 1977
9Devaiah Subia1 April 197719 May 1977 [11]
10 Idris Hasan Latif**20 May 197731 August 1978
11Edul Jahangir Dhatigara4 September 197831 January 1980
12Lal Singh Grewal1 February 198031 December 1980
13 Dilbagh Singh 1 January 198131 August 1981 [11]
14 Trilochan Singh Brar 22 September 198131 December 1983
15Jagdish Raj Bhasin1 January 198431 October 1984
16Prem Pal Singh1 November 198431 October 1984 [12]
17Subramaniam Raghavendran1 January 198629 February 1988
18 Nirmal Chandra Suri**1 March 198831 August 1991
19 Palamadai Muthuswamy Ramachandran 14 October 199128 February 1993
20Pondicherry Jayarao Jayakumar1 March 199330 April 1994
21Pratap Rao6 June 199431 July 1995
22 Satish Kumar Sareen**1 August 199531 December 1995 [13]
23Trevor Raymond Joseph Osman1 January 199631 March 1997 [14]
24 Anil Yashwant Tipnis**1 April 199731 December 1998 [15]
25Prithvi Singh Brar4 January 199931 July 2000 [16]
26 Vinod Patney 1 August 200031 July 2001 [17]
27 Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy**1 August 200131 December 2001 [18]
28Satish Govind Inamdar1 January 200231 January 2003 [19]
29Michael McMahon1 February 200330 September 2004 [20]
30Sunil Kumar Malik1 October 200431 July 2005 [21]
31Ajit Bhavnani22 August 200531 October 2006 [22] [23]
32B. N. Gokhale1 November 200631 December 2007 [24]
33 Pradeep Vasant Naik**1 January 200831 May 2009 [25]
34Pranab Kumar Barbora1 June 200931 December 2010 [26]
35 Norman Anil Kumar Browne**1 January 201131 July 2011 [27]
36Krishan Kumar Nohwar1 August 201131 May 2012 [28]
37Dinesh Chandra Kumaria1 June 201230 June 2013 [29]
38 Arup Raha**1 July 201331 December 2013 [30]
39Ravi Kant Sharma31 December 201330 May 2015 [31] [32]
40 Birender Singh Dhanoa**31 May 201531 December 2016 [33]
41 Shirish Baban Deo 31 December 201630 September 2018 [34]
42 Anil Khosla 1 October 201830 April 2019 [35]
43 Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria**1 May 201930 September 2019 [36]
44 Harjit Singh Arora 1 October 201930 June 2021 [37] [38]
45 Vivek Ram Chaudhari**1 July 202130 September 2021 [39]
46 Sandeep Singh 1 October 202131 January 2023 [40]
47 Amar Preet Singh**1 February 202330 September 2024 [41]
48 Sujeet Pushpakar Dharkar 3 October 202430 April 2025 [42]
49 Narmdeshwar Tiwari 1 May 2025Present [2]

** Went on to become Chief of the Air Staff

See also

References

  1. ↑ "India Strategic – The authoritative monthly on Defence and Strategic Affairs". indiastrategic.in. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  2. 1 2 "युद्ध का माहौल और एयरफोर्स को मिला नया डिप्टी चीफ, बिहार के नर्मदेश्वर तिवारी को अहम जिम्मेदारी" (in Hindi). 30 April 2025.
  3. ↑ "RIAF APPOINTMENTS" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 14 August 1947. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  4. 1 2 "THE GAZETTE OF INDIA" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 12 January 1963. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "HIGHER RANK FOR AIR CHIEF" (PDF). pibarchive.nic.in. 20 January 1966.
  6. ↑ "President's Secretariat" (PDF). Office of the President of India. Rajya Sabha. 26 August 1979. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
  7. ↑ "Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission" (PDF). 20 November 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  8. ↑ "Marshal of The Air Force | Indian Air Force | Government of India". indianairforce.nic.in.
  9. 1 2 "Pratap Chandra Lal Padam Vibhushan, Padam Bhushan, DFC CAS | Indian Air Force | Government of India". indianairforce.nic.in.
  10. ↑ Chowdhry, Mohindra S. (2018). "7. Sikhs in the Second World War". Defence of Europe by Sikh Soldiers in the World Wars. Leicestershire: Troubador Publishing Ltd. pp. 365–366. ISBN   978-1788037-983.
  11. 1 2 "Air Marshal Devaiah Subia". Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  12. ↑ "AIR MARSHAL PP SINGH APPOINTED VICE CHIEF OF AIR STAFF" (PDF). pibarchive.nic.in. 16 November 1984.
  13. ↑ "Satish Kumar Sareen PVSM AVSM VM ADC CAS | Indian Air Force | Government of India". indianairforce.nic.in.
  14. ↑ "Air Marshal Trevor Osman". The General Thimayya Memorial Trust.
  15. ↑ "A.Y. Tipnis PVSM,AVSM, VM, ADC CAS | Indian Air Force | Government of India". indianairforce.nic.in.
  16. ↑ "rediff.com: Kargil hero is IAF vice-chief". www.rediff.com.
  17. ↑ "Vinod Patney Vice-Chief of Air Staff". The Hindu . 18 June 2000.[ dead link ]
  18. ↑ "Latest Releases". pibarchive.nic.in.
  19. ↑ "New vice-chiefs for Navy, IAF". The Hindu . 27 December 2001.[ dead link ]
  20. ↑ "Air Marshal McMahon is new IAF vice-chief - Times of India". The Times of India.
  21. ↑ "English Releases". pib.nic.in.
  22. ↑ "Bhavnani is new Vice Chief of Air Staff". www.rediff.com.
  23. ↑ "Air Marshal Bhavnani new Vice Chief of Air Staff". www.outlookindia.com.
  24. ↑ "Air Marshal B N Gokhale takes over as new Vice Chief of Air Staff". news.webindia123.com. 1 December 2015. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  25. ↑ "PV Naik new Vice Chief of Air Staff". www.hindustantimes.com. Hindustan Times.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  26. ↑ "AIR MARSHAL PK BARBORA NEW VICE CHIEF". pib.nic.in. PIB.
  27. ↑ "Air Marshal NAK Browne will be The Next Chief of Air Staff". pib.nic.in. PIB.
  28. ↑ "Air Marshal K K Nohwar, chief of the Eastern Air Command, will take over as the new IAF vice chief on August 1". timesofindia.indiatimes.com. TOI.
  29. ↑ "Air Marshal Kumaria to take over as IAF Vice Chief". www.firstpost.com.
  30. ↑ "Air Marshal Arup Raha Take Over as Vice Chief of Air Staff". pib.nic.in. PIB.
  31. ↑ "Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal RK Sharma PVSM AVSM VM ADC Retires on 31 May 2015". pib.nic.in/.
  32. ↑ "Air Marshal R K Sharma to retire". economictimes.indiatimes.com.
  33. ↑ "Air Marshal BS Dhanoa takes charge as Vice Chief of Air Staff". zeenews.india.com.
  34. ↑ "Air Marshal SB Deo takes over as Vice Chief of the Air Staff of Indian Air Force". pib.nic.in.
  35. ↑ "Air Marshal Anil Khosla to take charge as Vice Chief of Air Force on Monday". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 28 September 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  36. ↑ "Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria PVSM AVSM VM ADC Takes Over as Vice Chief of the Air Staff" (Press release). Press Information Bureau. 1 May 2019.
  37. ↑ @IAF_MCC (1 October 2019). "Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora, took over as Vice Chief of the Air Staff today. He was commissioned into the fighter stream of IAF in Dec 1981. He has a vast experience of operational flying on modern and legacy fighters in the IAF inventory" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  38. ↑ "Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora AVSM ADC assumes charge as Vice Chief of the Air Staff". 1 October 2019.
  39. ↑ "AIR MARSHAL VIVEK RAM CHAUDHARI PVSM AVSM VM ASSUMES CHARGE AS VICE CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF". PIB. 1 July 2021.
  40. ↑ "Air Marshal Sandeep Singh AVSM VM assumes the Appointment of Vice Chief of the Air Staff". PIB. 13 October 2021.
  41. ↑ "AIR MARSHAL AP SINGH ASSUMES APPOINTMENT OF VICE CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF" (Press release). PIB. 1 February 2023.
  42. ↑ "Air Marshal SP Dharkar Appointed Next India Air Force's Vice Chief". PIB. 25 September 2024.
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