Training Command (India)

Last updated
Air Training Command
Training Crest.jpg
Emblem of the Training Air Command
Founded22 July 1949
Country India
Branch Indian Air Force
TypeOperational Air Command
RoleFlying and ground training.
Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka
Motto(s) Sanskrit: Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya
"From darkness, lead us unto Light"
Commanders
Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Air Marshal Radhakrishnan Radhish, AVSM, VM

Training Command is the Indian Air Force's command responsible for flying and ground training.

Contents

In the 1930s, the approaching threat and later advent of World War II and the leaning of Japan towards the Axis powers, the latter was considered as a potential enemy. Therefore, need was felt to make IAF a self-supporting force for the South Eastern Theatre of war. This led to the rapid expansion of the IAF. A target was fixed of 10 IAF Squadrons. With this expansion, the requirement of pilots and technical personnel increased. For the training of technical personnel, a technical training school was set up at Ambala in 1940.

In a 1949 reorganisation of the Indian Air Force, while frontline units were put under the Operations Command, all the training institutions were placed under the jurisdiction of the Training Command. [1]

Among Training Command's units is the Navigation Training School at Begumpet Air Force Station, Hyderabad. It flies the BAe HS. 748, [2] the Basic Flying Training School and the Air Force Administrative College. The Hawk Operational Training Squadron and Weapon System Operators' School are located at Bidar Air Force Station which flows the Hawk Mk 132 trainer aircraft.

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

List of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief
RankNameFromTo
Air commodore Ravinder Hari Darshan Singh 22 July 1949 [3] 3 December 1952
Surendra Nath Goyal 17 December 1952 [3] 10 January 1956
Pratap Chandra Lal 11 January 1956 [3] 20 November 1957
Kanwar Jaswant Singh 27 May 1958 [3] 22 March 1959
Ranjan Dutt 23 March 1959 [3] 12 April 1960
Air Vice Marshal 13 April 1960 [3] 29 December 1960
Surendra Nath Goyal 1 April 1961 [3] 6 August 1966
Teja Singh Virk 10 August 1966 [3] 22 August 1969
Victor Srihari 30 August 1969 [3] 3 March 1972
Anand Ramdas Pandit 4 March 1972 [3] 8 April 1973
Gian Dev Sharma 9 April 1973 [3] 29 June 1947
George Kanishtkumar John 1 July 1974 [3] 22 March 1976
Air Marshal Maurice Barker 22 April 1976 [3] 22 September 1976
Randhir Singh 23 October 1976 [3] 29 April 1978
Hemant Ramkrishna Chitnis 11 May 1978 [3] 19 February 1979
George Kanishtkumar John 20 February 1979 [3] 30 September 1979
Balwant Wickram Chauhan 29 October 1979 [3] 19 September 1981
Erasseri Pathayapurayil Radhakrishnan Nair 20 October 1981 [3] 28 February 1985
Vir Narain 1 March 1985 [3] 30 November 1987
Jagdish Kumar Seth 1 December 1987 [3] 30 September 1991
Rajendra Kumar Dhawan 7 October 1991 [3] 31 May 1993
Verinder Puri 3 September 1993 [3] 31 May 1995
Krishna Bihari Singh 1 July 1995 [3] 31 December 1997
Jagbir Singh Rai 1 January 1998 [3] 31 March 2001
Teshter Jall Master 1 April 2001 [3] 31 December 2002
Bijoy Krishna Pandey 3 February 2003 [3] 31 May 2004
Subhash Bhojwani 12 July 2004 [3] 31 January 2006
Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale 1 March 2006 [3] 31 October 2006
Gurnam Singh Choudhary 1 November 2006 [3] 30 April 2008
Venkataraman Ramamurthy Iyer 1 May 2008 [3] 30 November 2010
Dhiraj Kukreja 1 December 2010 [3] 29 February 2012
Rajinder Singh 1 March 2012 [3] 30 June 2013
Paramjit Singh Gill 1 July 2013 [3] 30 June 2014
Ramesh Rai 1 July 2014 [3] 31 July 2015
Sridharan Panicker Radha Krishnan Nair 1 September 2015 [3] 31 July 2018
Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria 1 August 2018 [3] 30 April 2019
Surendra Kumar Ghotia 1 May 2019 [3] 30 September 2019
Arvindra Singh Butola 1 October 2019 [3] 30 September 2020
Rajiv Dayal Mathur 1 October 2020 [3] 31 July 2021 [4]
Manavendra Singh 25 September 2021 [3] 31 December 2022
Radhakrishnan Radhish 1 January 2023 [5] Incumbent

See also

Notes

  1. Sarkar, Hindustan year-book and who's who, 536
  2. Dutch Aviation Society, Indian Air Force Order of Battle Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine , verified October 2011
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 "Training Command - BRF". Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  4. "Rapid Turnover in IAF Brass". Bharat Shakti. 2021-05-29.
  5. "Training Command IAF". IAF. 2023-01-01.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Air Force</span> Aerial service branch of the Indian Armed Forces

The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 October 1932 as an auxiliary air force of the British Empire which honoured India's aviation service during World War II with the prefix Royal. After India gained independence from United Kingdom in 1947, the name Royal Indian Air Force was kept and served in the name of the Dominion of India. With the transition to a republic in 1950, the prefix Royal was removed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arjan Singh</span> Marshal of the Indian Air Force

Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh, was a senior air officer of the Indian Air Force. He served as the 3rd Chief of the Air Staff from 1964 to 1969, leading the Air Force through the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. He was the first and only officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to be promoted to five-star rank as Marshal of the Indian Air Force, equal to the army rank of Field Marshal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pratap Chandra Lal</span> Indian Air Force Chief of Air Staff

Air Chief Marshal Pratap Chandra Lal, DFC was the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) of the Indian Air Force (IAF) during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. He served in the IAF from 1939 until his retirement in 1973. He was the CAS at the time of Operation Chengiz Khan, the preemptive strikes that were carried out by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) that marked the formal initiation of hostilities of the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idris Hasan Latif</span> Air Chief Marshal IAF (1923–2018)

Air Chief Marshal Idris Hasan Latif, PVSM was a former air officer in the Indian Air Force. He served as the 10th Chief of Air Staff (CAS) of the Indian Air Force (IAF) from 1978 to 1981. After retiring from the air force, he served as 11th Governor of Maharashtra from 1982 to 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subroto Mukerjee</span> First Chief of the Air Staff of India

Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee OBE was an Indian military officer who was the first Indian Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Indian Air Force. He was awarded several honours during the course of a three-decade-long career, ended by his untimely demise in 1960. He has been called the Father of the Indian Air Force.


The No.3 Squadron (Cobras) of the Indian Air Force (IAF) operates as a Close Air Support (CAS) and reconnaissance unit. Currently based at NAL Air Force Station, No. 3 Sqn falls under the Western Air Command, forms the 46 wing of the IAF.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aspy Engineer</span> Indian Air Marshal and diplomat

Air Marshal Aspy Merwan Engineer DFC was an officer in the Indian Air Force who rose through the ranks to become independent India's second Chief of the Air Staff, succeeding Subroto Mukerjee in 1960 and preceding Arjan Singh.

No. 4 Squadron IAF (Oorials) is a fighter squadron of the Indian Air Force (IAF) equipped with the Su-30 MKI, based at Jodhpur Air Force Station in Jodhpur in, Rajasthan, India. Since its establishment during the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, No. 4 Squadron remains the only fighter squadron other than No. 3 Squadron IAF and No. 7 Squadron IAF to remain continuously in existence in the service of India.

The No. 224 Squadron (Warlords) of the IAF is a Ground Attack squadron based at Jamnagar AFS. It was temporarily disbanded in 2007 after the retirement of MiG-23MF aircraft. The unit was resurrected in 2008 with Jaguar Darin II aircraft and continues to operate from Jamnagar.

The Western Air Command (WAC) is the regional command of Indian Air Force headquartered in New Delhi. It is the largest and most important Air Command of the IAF, comprising sixteen Air Force Bases (AFBs), and is responsible for aerial defence of North India.

No. 26 Squadron IAF (Warriors) is a Ground Attack and Close Air Support unit of the Indian Air Force, operating from Pathankot Air Force Station under India's Western Air Command. The squadron was number plated on an unspecified date.

No. 31 Squadron IAF, nicknamed the Lions, is a Ground Attack squadron of the Indian Air Force, equipped with Su-30MKI aircraft operating from Jodhpur Air Force Station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramaswamy Rajaram</span>

Air Marshal Ramaswamy Rajaram, DFC (1917–1969) was a senior officer in the Indian Air Force. He died in harness while serving as the Vice Chief of Air Staff (VCAS) of the Indian Air Force. He was the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Air Command during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

Air Chief Marshal Satish Kumar Sareen, PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC was the Chief of Air Staff of Indian Air Force from 31 December 1995 till 31 December 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bidar Air Force Station</span> IAFs advanced fighter pilot training centre

BidarAir Force Station is a flight training establishment of the Indian Air Force. It was founded during World War II and has been a training center for Indian Air Force pilots since 1963. Trainer aircraft like the HAL HT-2 and variants of HAL HJT-16 Kiran have been used at the airbase for nearly four decades. In 2011, the station was remodeled and refurbished, with the runway extended to 9000 feet and new facilities for aircraft engine maintenance and testing added.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harjinder Singh (IAF Officer)</span> Air Officer in the Indian Air Force

Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh, PVSM, MBE was an Air Officer in the Indian Air Force. He was one of the earliest to join the newly created Indian Air Force (IAF) in 1933 in the lowest rank of 'Hawai sepoy'. In a career spanning over three decades and two wars, he rose from the lowest enlisted rank to the then second-highest rank in the Indian Air Force. Hailed as technical wizard and innovator, he is considered a legend of the IAF.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard John Duckworth</span> Indian Air Force Officer

Air Marshal Richard John Duckworth, AVSM, VSM is a retired officer of the Indian Air Force. He served as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), Central Air Command. He assumed the office on 1 July 2021 succeeding Air Marshal Amit Tiwari. Previously he served as Air Officer in charge Personnel at Air Headquarters Vayu Bhawan in New Delhi and Senior Air Staff Officer for the Western Air Command and Central Air Command.

Air Commodore Narendra was an officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF). One of the pioneers of the IAF, he last served as the Air Officer-in-charge Technical and Equipment Services at Air HQ. He was killed when his Dakota aircraft crashed near Gülnar in Southern Turkey. At the time of his death, he was the third senior-most officer of the IAF, after Air Marshals Subroto Mukerjee and Aspy Engineer.

Air Vice Marshal Ranjan Dutt, VrC was a former air officer of the Indian Air Force. He last served as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command. Prior to that, he was the managing director of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeetendra Mishra</span> Officer of the Indian Air Force

Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra, AVSM VSM is an air officer of the Indian Air Force. He currently serves as the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Ops) at HQ Integrated Defence Staff. He assumed the office on 1 December 2023. He earlier served as the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (DOT) at Integrated Defence Staff and the 29th Commandant of the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment which also houses the Indian Air Force Test Pilot School.