Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (India)

Deputy Chief of the Air Staff
Flag of an Air Marshal
Incumbent
Air Marshal Tejinder Singh, AVSM, VM
since 1 September 2024
 Indian Air Force
TypePrincipal Staff Officer
AbbreviationDCAS
Reports toChief of the Air Staff
SeatAir Headquarters, New Delhi
First holderAir Vice Marshal Subroto Mukerjee
Salary₹224,000 (US$2,700)

The Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS) is a senior appointment in the Indian Air Force.[1] The DCAS is a PSO (Principal Staff Officer) at Air Force Headquarters in New Delhi. The office is held by a Three Star Officer in the rank of Air Marshal. The current DCAS is Air Marshal Tejinder Singh who took over from Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit on 1 September 2024.[2]

History

At the time of independence of India on 15 August 1947, Air Commodore Subroto Mukerjee was appointed Deputy Air Commander, Royal Indian Air Force, in addition to being Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) at the newly-formed Air HQ.[3] On 15 November the same year, he was promoted to the acting rank of Air Vice Marshal. In 1949, the RIAF was reorganised and the post was re-designated Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS). The DCAS continued to be the Deputy Air Commander. On 1 January 1963, the post of Vice Chief of the Air Staff was created and became the second-highest post of the Indian Air Force.[4] In 1968, the post was upgraded to three-star rank Air Marshal.[1]


The DCAS ranks at No. 24 on the Indian order of precedence, along with Lieutenant Generals of the Indian Army and Vice Admirals of the Indian Navy. The DCAS is in the HAG+ pay scale (pay level 16), and draws salary depending on the years in service. However, since they should not draw equivalent or more than the next higher level, the remuneration is capped at ₹224,000.[5][6]

Appointees

S.No. Rank Name Assumed office Left office Notes
Deputy Air Commander, Royal Indian Air Force
1 Air Vice Marshal [n 1] Subroto Mukerjee** 15 August 1947 31 January 1949 [3]
Deputy Chief of the Air Staff
Air Vice Marshal Subroto Mukerjee** 1 February 1949 16 December 1952 [4]
2 Aspy Merwan Engineer** 17 December 1952 30 April 1958 [7]
3 Diwan Atma Ram Nanda 1 May 1958 31 December 1962 [8]
4 Arjan Singh** 1 January 1963 4 August 1963
5 Ramaswamy Rajaram 5 August 1963 30 September 1964 [9]
6 Minoo Merwan Engineer 1 October 1964 28 February 1968 [10]
7 Air Marshal 1 March 1968 4 August 1969
8 Om Prakash Mehra** 7 August 1969 28 February 1971 [11]
9 Hirendra Nath Chatterjee 30 March 1971 31 March 1972 [11]
10 Yeshwant Vinayak Malse 3 May 1972 31 March 1973 [12]
11 Hari Chand Dewan 1 April 1973 18 October 1973 [12]
12 Sarosh Jehangir Dastur 12 November 1973 27 June 1974 [13]
13 Devaiah Subia 27 June 1974 31 March 1977
14 Jafar Zaheer 20 May 1977 23 August 1978
15 Lal Singh Grewal 24 August 1978 31 January 1980
16 Malcolm Wollen 16 April 1980 2 January 1981 [14]
17 Chandra Kant Viswanath Gole 15 January 1981 30 June 1983 [15]
18 Kapil Dev Chadha 8 July 1983 31 October 1984
19 Johney William Greene 1 January 1985 31 May 1986 [16]
20 Surinder Mehra** 1 June 1986 28 February 1987 [17]
21 Prithi Singh 1 March 1987 31 July 1988 [18]
22 Rajendra Kumar Dhawan 1 August 1988 1 April 1990
23 Brijesh Dhar Jayal 2 April 1990 6 October 1991 [19]
24 Trilochan Singh Brar 7 October 1991 30 April 1993
25 Prabhat Kumar Varma 1 May 1993 28 February 1994
26 Sharadkumar Ramakrishna Deshpande 1 March 1994 31 January 1996
27 Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy** 1 February 1996 23 July 1996
28 Man Mohan Singh Vasudeva 24 July 1996 31 August 1997
29 Syed Shahid Hussain Naqvi 1 September 1997 30 September 1999 [20]
30 Satish Govind Inamdar 1 October 1999 30 November 2000 [21]
31 Tej Mohan Asthana 1 December 2000 17 March 2002
32 Raghu Rajan 5 June 2002 31 March 2004
33 Jaspal Singh Gujral 1 April 2004 30 April 2005
34 Arvind Kumar Nagalia 24 August 2005 28 February 2007 [22]
35 Norman Anil Kumar Browne** 1 March 2007 31 May 2009 [23]
36 Nirdosh Vatsyayan Tyagi 1 June 2009 31 January 2011 [24]
37 Ravi Kant Sharma 1 February 2011 30 November 2012
38 Subramanyam Sukumar 1 December 2012 28 February 2014
39 Sridharan Panicker Radha Krishnan Nair 1 March 2014 30 April 2014
40 Shyam Bihari Prasad Sinha 1 May 2014 31 December 2015 [25]
41 Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria** 1 January 2016 28 February 2017
42 Raghunath Nambiar 1 March 2017 30 September 2018
43 Vivek Ram Chaudhari** 1 October 2018 30 September 2019 [26]
44 Sandeep Singh 1 October 2019 30 April 2021 [27]
45 Suraj Kumar Jha 1 May 2021 31 July 2021
46 Narmdeshwar Tiwari 1 October 2021 30 April 2023
47 Ashutosh Dixit 15 May 2023 31 August 2024 [28]
48 Tejinder Singh 1 September 2024 Incumbent [2]

** Went on to become Chief of the Air Staff

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Appointed as an Air Commodore, promoted to the rank of Air vice-marshal on 15 November 1947.

References

  1. ^ a b "Deputy Chief of Air Staff Appointments at Air Head Quarters". Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  2. ^ a b "AIR MARSHAL TEJINDER SINGH TAKES OVER AS DEPUTY CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF" (Press release). PIB. 2024-09-01.
  3. ^ a b "RIAF APPOINTMENTS" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 14 August 1947. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  4. ^ a b "THE GAZETTE OF INDIA" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 12 January 1963. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  5. ^ "President's Secretariat" (PDF). Office of the President of India. Rajya Sabha. 26 August 1979. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
  6. ^ "Table of Precedence (Updated)" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  7. ^ "Air Vice Marshal Engineer" (PDF). pibarchive.nic.in. 2 December 1954.
  8. ^ "AIR FORCE HOCKEY FROM MONDAY" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 13 November 1959. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  9. ^ "AVM RAJARAM NEW COMMANDANT OF NDC" (PDF). pibarchive.nic.in. 10 January 1966.
  10. ^ "BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 1 March 1968.
  11. ^ a b "AIR MARSHAL H. N. CHATTERJEE - NEW DEPUTY AIR CHIEF" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 18 March 1971. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  12. ^ a b "AIR MARSHAL MALSE APPOINTED VICE CHIEF OF AIR STAFF" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 17 March 1973. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  13. ^ "DASTUR APPOINTED DEPUTY CHIEF OF AIR STAFF" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 13 November 1973. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  14. ^ "AIR MARSHAL WOLLEN APPOINTED DEPUTY CHIEF OF AIR STAFF" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 15 April 1980. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  15. ^ "AIR MARSHAL GOLE APPOINTED DEPUTY CHIEF OF AIR STAFF" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 15 January 1981. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  16. ^ "AIR VICE MARSHAL GREENE PROMOTED AND APPOINTED DEPUTY CHIEF OF AIR STAFF" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 2 January 1985. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  17. ^ "NEW APPOINTMENT FOR AIR MARSHAL MEHRA" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 27 February 1987. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  18. ^ "PIB (Defence Wing)" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 30 July 1988. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  19. ^ "AIR JAYAL APPOINTED DEPUTY CHIEF OF AIR STAFF" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 8 April 1990. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  20. ^ "AIR MARSHAL SS HUSSAIN NAQVI IS THE NEW DEPUTY CHIEF OF AIR STAFF" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 9 September 1997. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  21. ^ "AIR MARSHAL SG INAMDAR TAKES OVER EASTERN AIR COMMAND" (PDF). archive.pib.gov.in. 1 December 2000. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  22. ^ "Air Marshal AK Nagalia takes over as the Deputy Chief of Air Staff". archive.pib.gov.in. 25 August 2005. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  23. ^ "Air Marshal Nak Browne takes Over as the Vice Chief of Air Staff (VCAS)". archive.pib.gov.in. 1 January 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  24. ^ "One Shaurya Chakra, Three Vayu Sena Medals for Gallant Air Force Pilots". archive.pib.gov.in. 25 January 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  25. ^ "Deputy Chief of Air Staff Flies Tejas". archive.pib.gov.in. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  26. ^ "IAF Announces Major Reshuffle, Air Marshal VR Chaudhari Takes Over as Deputy Chief of Air Staff". India.com. 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  27. ^ "Air Marshal Sandeep Singh, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff". SPS Aviation. 2019-09-01. Retrieved 2021-12-25.
  28. ^ "AIR MARSHAL ASHUTOSH DIXIT TAKES OVER AS DEPUTY CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF" (Press release). PIB. 2023-05-15.