NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Sunday got its new Deputy Chief as Air Marshal Tejinder Singh took over as Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS) at Air Headquarters (Vayu Bhawan).
He is replacing Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit who has been appointed as new Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOCinC) of Central Air Command.
The role of DCAS will be significant keeping his role in adding to the combat power with the Combat Squadrons hovering around 30 with the sanctioned being 42.
The IAF said, “After the assumption of his new appointment, the Air Marshal paid homage to the brave hearts who gave the supreme sacrifice, by laying a wreath at the National War Memorial, New Delhi.”
Air Marshal Singh, an alumnus of the National Defence Academy (NDA), was commissioned in the fighter stream of the IAF on 13 June 1987.
As the new DCAS he will be part of the important Principal Staff Officers of the Force mandated to steer the future force structure as he will “primarily deal with Planning future procurements, Managing current projects dealing with Revenue and Capital Procurement,” said a source.
Capital Procurement covers expenditure on the acquisition of new weapons and ammunition and replacement of obsolete stores. He is one of the six Principal Staff Officers (PSO) of the Force.
While the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) exercises operational and administrative control of the Indian Air Force, he is assisted by Six PSOs including the Vice Chief of Air Staff, DCAS, Air Officer Maintenance (AOM), Air Officer Maintenance (AOP), Air Officer Maintenance (AOA) and Director General Inspection and Safety (DG I&S).
IAF said that the Air Marshal is a Category 'A' Qualified Flying Instructor with over 4500 hours of flying, an alumnus of Defence Service Staff College and National Defence College.
“He has commanded a Fighter Squadron, a Radar Station, a premier Fighter Base and was Air Officer Commanding, Jammu and Kashmir. His varied staff appointments include Operational Staff at a Command HQ, Air Commodore (Personnel Officers-1) at Air HQ, Deputy Assistant Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, Financial (Planning) at HQ IDS, Air Commodore (Aerospace Safety), Assistant Chief of Air Staff Operations (Offensive) and ACAS Ops (Strategy) at Air HQ. Before his present appointment, he was the Senior Air Staff Officer, HQ Eastern Air Command of IAF at Shillong, Meghalaya,” said the IAF.
Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, who was posted as the DCAS, assumed charge of the Allahabad, UP-based Central Air Command. He was commissioned into the fighter stream of IAF on 06 December 1986,
The Air Officer is an Experimental Test Pilot and a Qualified Flying Instructor with more than 3300 hours of flying experience on a variety of aircraft in the IAF inventory. He is an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College (Bangladesh) and National Defence College. He has actively participated in numerous operations and exercises such as Operation Safed Sagar and Operation Rakshak.
Before taking over as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command, he was serving the appointment of Deputy Chief of the Air Staff.
“The Air Officer headed many path-breaking projects during his previous tenure with the adoption of future technologies and ensured that the IAF achieves modernization while maintaining a steady focus on 'Atmanirbharta-Self Reliance',” said IAF.