Air Chief Marshal AP Singh takes charge as new IAF Chief

Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh on Monday assumed charge as new chief of the Indian Air Force, succeeding incumbent Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari.

Air Chief Marshal Singh, who is an accomplished fighter pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience, was serving as Vice Chief in his previous assignment.

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari retired from service after helming the force for three years.

As Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Singh's priorities are expected to be procurement of new fighter fleets and carrying forward the force's modernisation agenda in the face of evolving national security challenges including the dragging eastern Ladakh border row with China.

Another important task for him would be to focus on the theaterisation plan as the government looks at rolling out the ambitious reform initiative.

Born on October 27, 1964, Air Chief Marshal Singh was commissioned into the fighter pilot stream of the Indian Air Force in December 1984.

In 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.

Air Chief Marshal Singh 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.

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.

Air Chief Marshal Singh has taken charge of the IAF amid concerns over delays in supply of LCA Tejas-Mark 1A variant to the force by state-run aerospace giant Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

The officer 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 in February last year, he was the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command.

The Air Chief Marshal is a recipient of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal and Ati Vishisht Seva Medal. He is known as a fitness enthusiast who also plays squash.