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Air Marshal Browne to be next IAF chief
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 20
Air Marshal NAK Browne, an ace MiG-21 and Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter pilot, will be the next chief of the IAF. Fifty nine-year-old Browne, Vice-Chief of the IAF, will take over from Air Chief Marshal PV Naik when he retires in July this year.

Born in Allahabad on December 15, 1951, Air Marshal Browne was commissioned into the Fighter stream of the Indian Air Force on June 24, 1972. With about 3100 hours of flying to his credit, he has a varied operational experience that included flying Hunters, all variants of MiG-21s, Jaguars and SU-30s.

An alumnus of National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Pune, he is a Fighter Combat Leader, who has also served as an instructor at the Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE), a premiere flying establishment of the IAF and the Tri-services Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington.

A graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, Albama, USA, he had trained with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the United Kingdom, on Jaguar aircraft and went on to command a Jaguar Squadron subsequently.

During his long and distinguished career spanning 38 years, he has held various operational and staff appointments that include Joint Director at Air War Strategy Cell at Air Headquarters, Chief Operations Officer and Air Officer Commanding of a SU-30 base, Air-I at New Delhi based Western Air Command (WAC) and Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Intelligence) at Air Headquarters.

He was also responsible for establishing the Indian Defence Wing in Tel Aviv, Israel, in April 1997 where he served as the Defence Attache till July 2000.