Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh appointed as next Chief of Air Staff

Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh has been appointed as the next Chief of the Air Staff

Vice Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh has been appointed as the next Chief of the Air Staff on Saturday.

The government has appointed Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh, PVSM, AVSM, presently serving as Vice Chief of the Air Staff, as the next Chief of the Air Staff, in the rank of Air Chief Marshal, with effect from the afternoon of September 30, 2024. The present Chief of the Air Staff is Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari.

Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh was commissioned into the fighter pilot stream of the Indian Air Force 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, according to a statement by the Ministry of Defence.

Known as a fine strategist, Air Marshal Singh, in a message to the DRDO and other agencies apparently over delays in delivery of Tejas jets and other military systems, said publicly at an event in July that self-reliance in defence cannot be at the cost of national security.

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, the officer 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.