NEW DELHI: Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh will take over as the next chief of the IAF from Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari, who retires on Sept 30, the govt announced on Saturday.
The government has gone by the seniority principle in appointing Air Marshal Singh, a fighter pilot who was commissioned in Dec 1984, as the next IAF chief.
Air Marshal Singh held important command and staff appointments before he was appointed the vice-chief in Feb last year.Before that he was the air officer commanding-in-chief of the Central Air Command at Prayagraj.
He is a qualified flying instructor and an experimental test pilot, with over 5,000 hours of flying on a variety of aircraft and helicopters. During his career, he has commanded an operational fighter squadron and a frontline air base. As a test pilot, he led the MiG-29 fighter upgrade project management team at Moscow and was also project director (flight test) of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft.
The government has gone by the seniority principle in appointing Air Marshal Singh, a fighter pilot who was commissioned in Dec 1984, as the next IAF chief.
Air Marshal Singh held important command and staff appointments before he was appointed the vice-chief in Feb last year.Before that he was the air officer commanding-in-chief of the Central Air Command at Prayagraj.
He is a qualified flying instructor and an experimental test pilot, with over 5,000 hours of flying on a variety of aircraft and helicopters. During his career, he has commanded an operational fighter squadron and a frontline air base. As a test pilot, he led the MiG-29 fighter upgrade project management team at Moscow and was also project director (flight test) of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft.