THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Air Marshal S R K Nair, the Malayali officer who headed Operation Raahat, the IAF’s massive relief operations during Uttarakhand floods, is the new Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of IAF’s Head Quarters Training Command in Bengaluru. He hails from Sasthamangalam, Thiruvananthapuram.
S R K Nair was part of Operation Pawan (Sri Lanka), Operation Cactus (Maldives), Operation Parakram and Operation Safed Sagar (Kargil). During an exercise in US, he pioneered a grueling nine hour 40 minute flight on an IL-76 transport aircraft to the North Pole and back, the only Indian aircraft to do so. He also circumnavigated the globe in the process. The Air Marshal was instrumental in starting operations both by AN -32 and C-130 Hercules to ‘Daulat-Beg-Olde,’ the highest airstrip in the world.
An alumnus of the Loyola School, the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasala, and the National Defence College, New Delhi, he was commissioned to the IAF’s transport stream in June 1980. His previous appointments include Chief Operations Officer of a transport base, commanding officer of an airlift squadron, Director Operations (Transport) of Air HQ, Air Officer Commanding of Air Force Station Chandigarh, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Personal Airmen & civilians) and Assistant Chief of Air Staff Operations (Transport & Helicopter) at Air HQ. He was Senior Air Staff Officer of Training Command Headquarters prior to his appointment as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief HQ, Training Command.