The Centre on Saturday appointed Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh, currently serving as the Vice Chief of the Air Staff, the next Chief of the Air Staff. It has been reported that Singh will assume the rank of Air Chief Marshal from the afternoon of September 30, 2024.
Singh will succeed Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari who will retire on the same date. On February 1, 2023, he took over as the 47th Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force.
Amar Preet Singh's journey in IAF
Being an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, and National Defence College, Singh in his long career in the IAF, has held many key roles, including Flight Commander and Commanding Officer of a MiG-27 squadron, as well as Air Officer Commanding of an air base.
On December 21, 1984, Singh was commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF.
Ahead of taking command of the prestigious Central Air Command (CAC), he served as the Senior Air Staff Officer at the Eastern Air Command.
As per reports, Amar Preet Singh is known to be a qualified Flying Instructor and an Experimental Test Pilot with over 4,900 hours of flying experience on a variety of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
During the course being the Flight Commander and Commanding Officer of a MiG-27 squadron, Singh has also led the MiG 29 Upgrade Project Management Team in Moscow, Russia.
He also owns the experience of serving as the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Project Director (Flight Test) at ‘National Flight Test Centre’ and Air Defence Commander at South Western Air Command.
The Air Marshal has also been awarded the ‘Ati Vishisht Seva Medal’ by the President of India on Republic Day in 2019 for his ‘distinguished’ services.
