Vice Chief of the Air Staff (India)

Vice Chief of the Air Staff
Flag of Air Marshal
since 2 May 2025
 Indian Air Force
StatusSecond in Command
AbbreviationVCAS
Reports to Chief of the Air Staff
SeatAir Headquarters, New Delhi
AppointerACC
Constituting instrumentAir Forces Act, 1952 (62 of 1952)
Formation1 January 1963 (1963-01-01)
First holderAtma Ram Nanda
DeputyDeputy Chief of the Air Staff

The Vice Chief of the Air Staff (VCAS) is a statutory office held by the second-highest ranking officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF). Customarily held by a three-star air marshal, the VCAS is the senior most Principal Staff Officer (PSO) to the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) - the professional head of the IAF. By duty, the VCAS has dual roles: in wartime, to oversee operational planning, capability build-up and force deployment during wartime; in peacetime, to act as an understudy to the CAS during peacetime.[1]

The present VCAS is Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari who assumed the office on 2 May 2025.[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 Air Vice Marshal Diwan Atma Ram 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 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]

Appointment

The Vice Chief of Air staff is appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, from among the senior general officers of the Air Force. Since the appointment is of Commander-in-Chief grade, the appointees are usually one of the Air Commanders of the six operational commands.

Unlike the Chief of Air Staff, there is no fixed term nor term limit to the position of the VCAS, although most of those appointed to the office have typically served for one or two year tenures and serve until the age of 60.

Appointees

The following table chronicles the appointees to the office of the Vice Chief of the Air Staff.

No. Rank Portrait Name Assumed office Left office CAS References
1 Air Vice Marshal Diwan Atma Ram Nanda 1 January 1963 4 August 1963 Air Marshal

Apsy Engineer

2 Arjan Singh[1] 5 August 1963 31 July 1964 [8]
3 Pratap Chandra Lal[2] 1 October 1964 14 January 1966 Marshal of the Indian Air Force

Arjan Singh

[9]
Air Marshal 15 January 1966 1 September 1966
4 Ramaswamy Rajaram 13 December 1966 18 June 1969
5 Shivdev Singh 15 July 1969 31 March 1973 Air Chief Marshal

P C Lal

[10]
Air Chief Marshal

O P Mehra

6 Yeshwant Vinayak Malse 1 April 1973 30 September 1973
7 Hari Chand Dewan 1 October 1973 31 March 1976
Air Chief Marshal

H Moolgavkar

8 Anand Ramdas Pandit 1 April 1976 31 March 1977
9 Devaiah Subia 1 April 1977 19 May 1977 [11]
10 Idris Hasan Latif[3] 20 May 1977 31 August 1978
11 Edul Jahangir Dhatigara 4 September 1978 31 January 1980 Air Chief Marshal

I H Latif

12 Lal Singh Grewal 1 February 1980 31 December 1980
13 Dilbagh Singh[4] 1 January 1981 31 August 1981 [11]
14 Trilochan Singh Brar 22 September 1981 31 December 1983 Air Chief Marshal

Dilbagh Singh

15 Jagdish Raj Bhasin 1 January 1984 31 October 1984
Air Chief Marshal

L M Katre

16 Prem Pal Singh 1 November 1984 7 January 1986 [12]
Air Chief Marshal

Fontaine

17 Subramaniam Raghavendran 8 January 1986 29 February 1988
18 Nirmal Chandra Suri[5] 1 March 1988 31 July 1991
Air Chief Marshal

S K Mehra

19 Palamadai Muthuswamy Ramachandran 14 October 1991 28 February 1993 Air Chief Marshal

N C Suri

20 Pondicherry Jayarao Jayakumar 1 March 1993 30 April 1994
Air Chief Marshal

S K Kaul

21 Pratap Rao 6 June 1994 31 July 1995
22 Satish Kumar Sareen[6] 1 August 1995 31 December 1995 [13]
23 Trevor Raymond Joseph Osman 1 January 1996 31 March 1997 Air Chief Marshal

S K Sareen

[14]
24 Anil Yashwant Tipnis[7] 1 April 1997 31 December 1998 [15]
25 Prithvi Singh Brar 4 January 1999 31 July 2000 Air Chief Marshal

A Y Tipnis

[16]
26 Vinod Patney 1 August 2000 31 July 2001 [17]
27 Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy[8] 1 August 2001 31 December 2001 [18]
28 Satish Govind Inamdar 1 January 2002 31 January 2003 Air Chief Marshal

Krishnawamy

[19]
29 Michael McMahon 1 February 2003 30 September 2004 [20]
30 Sunil Kumar Malik 1 October 2004 31 July 2005 [21]
Air Chief Marshal

S P Tyagi

31 Ajit Bhavnani 22 August 2005 31 October 2006 [22][23]
32 B. N. Gokhale 1 November 2006 31 December 2007 [24]
Air Chief Marshal

F H Major

33 Pradeep Vasant Naik[9] 1 January 2008 31 May 2009 [25]
34 Pranab Kumar Barbora 1 June 2009 31 December 2010 Air Chief Marshal

P V Naik

[26]
35 Norman Anil Kumar Browne[10] 1 January 2011 31 July 2011 [27]
36 Krishan Kumar Nohwar 1 August 2011 31 May 2012 Air Chief Marshal

N A K Browne

[28]
37 Dinesh Chandra Kumaria 1 June 2012 30 June 2013 [29]
38 Arup Raha[11] 1 July 2013 31 December 2013 [30]
39 Ravi Kant Sharma 31 December 2013 30 May 2015 Air Chief Marshal

Arup Raha

[31][32]
40 Birender Singh Dhanoa[12] 31 May 2015 31 December 2016 [33]
41 Shirish Baban Deo 31 December 2016 30 September 2018 Air Chief Marshal

B S Dhanoa

[34]
42 Anil Khosla 1 October 2018 30 April 2019 [35]
43 Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria[13] 1 May 2019 30 September 2019 [36]
44 Harjit Singh Arora 1 October 2019 30 June 2021 Air Chief Marshal

R K S Bhadauria

[37][38]
45 Vivek Ram Chaudhari[14] 1 July 2021 30 September 2021 [39]
46 Sandeep Singh 1 October 2021 31 January 2023 Air Chief Marshal

V R Chaudhari

[40]
47 Amar Preet Singh[15] 1 February 2023 30 September 2024 [41]
48 Sujeet Pushpakar Dharkar 3 October 2024 30 April 2025 Air Chief Marshal

A P Singh

[42]
49 Narmdeshwar Tiwari 2 May 2025 31 December 2025 [43]

Notes

1.^ Later promoted to the post of the Chief of Air Staff.

See also

References

  1. ^ "President awards 1st set of Sarvottam Yudh Seva medals since Kargil, 7 honoured for leading Op Sindoor". theprint.in. 14 August 2025.
  2. ^ "AIR MARSHAL NARMDESHWAR TIWARI PVSM AVSM VM TAKES OVER AS VICE CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF, INDIAN AIR FORCE". PIB Delhi. 2 May 2025. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  3. ^ "RIAF APPOINTMENTS" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 14 August 1947. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  4. ^ a b "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. ^ "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. ^ a b "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.
  18. ^ "Latest Releases". pibarchive.nic.in.
  19. ^ "New vice-chiefs for Navy, IAF". The Hindu. 27 December 2001.
  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.
  43. ^ "युद्ध का माहौल और एयरफोर्स को मिला नया डिप्टी चीफ, बिहार के नर्मदेश्वर तिवारी को अहम जिम्मेदारी" (in Hindi). 30 April 2025.
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