Air Marshal AP Singh has been appointed as the next Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF). He is a fighter pilot and is currently serving as the Vice Chief. He is slated to take over on September 30, when Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari superannuates.
Air Marshal Singh has been test-flying the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas — the latest sortie being 10 days ago when he flew the fighter jet over Jodhpur during the multi-nation exercise ‘Tarang Shakti’.
Announcing the appointment, the Ministry of Defence said “he was the Project Director (Flight Test) at the National Flight Test Centre and was tasked with flight-testing the LCA Tejas”. Air Marshal Singh is the fourth officer — after Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh, Air Chief Marshal Dilbagh Singh and Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa — from the Sikh community to lead the IAF.
Among the tasks ahead of him is fostering collaboration between the Army, Navy and IAF. A fierce advocate of indigenisation, Air Marshal Singh had made it clear at a recent public event that the speed of manufacturing was critical to maintaining self-reliance.
Air Marshal Singh, who studied at Janakpuri in the national capital, grew up in a middle-class family in west Delhi. He is a squash player and an avid long-distance runner. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College and National Defence College, Air Marshal Singh is a qualified flying instructor and an experimental test pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience on a variety of fixed wing planes and helicopters.
Air Marshal Singh was commissioned as a fighter pilot in December 1984. Prior to his elevation as the Vice Chief, Air Marshal Singh headed the IAF’s Central Command headquartered at Prayagraj.
Air Marshal Singh has commanded an operational fighter squadron and a frontline airbase along the borders, and led the MiG-29 jet upgrade project management team at Moscow, Russia. He also served as the Air Defence Commander at the South Western Air Command, headquartered at Ahmedabad, and the Senior Air Staff Officer at Eastern Air Command at Shillong, Meghalaya.
