Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, an ace fighter pilot, on Monday took charge as the new chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF), succeeding Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari on his retirement.
“Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari handed over command of Indian Air Force today. On the occasion, he paid homage to the departed brave hearts at the #NationalWarMemorial in the morning before undertaking the traditional ‘walk through’ at the Vayu Bhawan. He was presented a ceremonial Guard of Honour as the parting salute by the Air Warriors of IAF,” the IAF wrote in a social media post on X.
Born on October 27,1964, Air Chief Marshal Singh was commissioned into the fighter pilot stream of the IAF in December 1984. During his long and distinguished service spanning nearly 40 years, he has served in a variety of Command, Staff, Instructional and Foreign appointments. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College and National Defence College, the Air Officer is a Qualified Flying Instructor and an Experimental Test Pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience on a variety of fixed and rotary wing aircraft.
During his career, he has commanded an operational fighter squadron and a frontline air base. As a test pilot, he led the MiG-29 Upgrade Project Management Team at Moscow, Russia. He was also the Project Director (Flight Test) at National Flight Test Centre and was tasked with flight testing of the Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas. He has held important staff appointments of Air Defence Commander at South Western Air Command and Senior Air Staff Officer at Eastern Air Command. Prior to assuming the charge of Vice Chief of the Air Staff, he was the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command.