# Commandant of the Air Force Academy (India)

The Commandant of the Air Force Academy is the head and in-charge of all the functioning of the Air Force Academy in India. The Commandant of the Academy is a Three-star rank officer holding the rank of Air marshal. He is supported by the Deputy Commandant, a Two star appointment, the Chief Instructor (Flying) (Air Commodore rank officer) and the Chief Ground Instructor (Air Commodore rank officer). The current Commandant is Air Marshal Seethepalli Shrinivas.

## History

The foundation stone of the Air Force Academy was laid by the then President of India Dr. Zakir Hussain on 11 October 1967. The academy was established in 1969 and started operations in 1971. The vision was to concentrate most of the ab-initio officer training of the Indian Air Force under one roof. Air Commodore J. D. Aquino, the commandant of the Air Force Flying College Jodhpur, was the first Commandant of the academy.
The appointment was held by an Air commodore till 1976, when it was upgraded to two-star rank. It was further upgraded to three-star rank in 2011.

## List of Commandants

| S.No | Name | Appointment Date | Left Office | Notes |
| 1 | Air commodore J. D. Aquino, AVSM | 8 March 1970 | 28 June 1972 | First commandant. |
| 2 | Air commodore Lakshman Madhav Katre, AVSM | 16 November 1972 | 26 December 1975 | Later Chief of the Air Staff. |
| 3 | Air Vice Marshal H. R. Chitnis, AVSM, VM | 5 January 1976 | 2 May 1977 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Maintenance Command. |
| 4 | Air Vice Marshal Trilochan Singh Brar, AVSM | 3 May 1978 | 14 August 1978 | Later Vice Chief of the Air Staff |
| 5 | Air Vice Marshal Balwant Wickram Chauhan, AVSM | 14 August 1978 | 23 October 1979 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Central Air Command. |
| 6 | Air Vice Marshal Terence Joseph Desa | 24 October 1979 | 6 April 1981 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command. |
| 7 | Air Vice Marshal Rajagopal Sriramulu Naidu, VM | 13 April 1981 | 25 June 1983 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command. |
| 8 | Air Vice Marshal Cecil Vivian Parker, MVC, VM | 1 July 1983 | 20 March 1985 | |
| 9 | Air Vice Marshal Jagdish Kumar Seth, AVSM, VM | 25 March 1985 | 7 February 1986 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command. |
| 10 | Air Vice Marshal Har Krishan Oberai, AVSM, VM | 22 March 1986 | 30 December 1987 | |
| 11 | Air Vice Marshal Eric Lionel Allen, AVSM, VM | 19 January 1988 | 28 February 1990 | |
| 12 | Air Vice Marshal Manjunath Sadanand, AVSM | 5 March 1990 | 30 November 1991 | |
| 13 | Air Vice Marshal P. K. Mani, VM | 2 December 1991 | 30 September 1993 | |
| 14 | Air Vice Marshal Krishnan Narayan Nair, VM | 1 October 1993 | 20 December 1995 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command. |
| 15 | Air Vice Marshal M. B. Madon, VM & bar | 21 December 1995 | 17 August 1998 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command. |
| 16 | Air Vice Marshal Jogendra Singh Sisodia, AVSM, VM | 18 August 1998 | 31 July 2000 | |
| 16 | Air Vice Marshal Subhash Bhojwani, AVSM, VSM | 1 August 2000 | 5 June 2002 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command. |
| 17 | Air Vice Marshal Vinod Kumar Verma, VM, VSM | 1 July 2002 | 11 January 2004 | Later Inspector General of Flight Safety. |
| 18 | Air Vice Marshal Yashwant Rao Rane, AVSM, VM | 12 January 2004 | 31 August 2005 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command. |
| 19 | Air Vice Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja, AVSM, VSM | 1 September 2005 | 29 February 2008 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command. |
| 20 | Air Vice Marshal K. J. Mathews, AVSM, YSM | 1 March 2008 | 31 August 2009 | Later Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Forces Command. |
| 21 | Air Vice Marshal Amit Aneja, AVSM, VM, VSM | 1 September 2009 | 31 March 2011 | |
| 22 | Air Marshal Priya Ranjan Sharma, AVSM | 1 April 2011 | 31 December 2012 | |
| 23 | Air Marshal R. G. Burli, VM | 1 January 2013 | 30 June 2014 | |
| 24 | Air Marshal Gurinder Pal Singh, VM | 1 July 2014 | 30 November 2016 | |
| 25 | Air Marshal Amit Tiwari, VM | 1 December 2016 | 3 September 2018 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Central Air Command. |
| 26 | Air Marshal Arvindra Singh Butola, VM, VSM | 4 September 2018 | 13 October 2019 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command. |
| 27 | Air Marshal Jonnalagedda Chalapati, VSM | 14 October 2019 | 31 July 2020 | Current Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Air Command. |
| 28 | Air Marshal Vipin Indira Panabhan Nayar, AVSM, VM | 1 August 2020 | 31 July 2021 | Earlier Commandant of the National Defence Academy. |
| 29 | Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor, AVSM, VM | 1 August 2021 | 31 October 2021 | Later Commandant of the National Defence Academy. |
| 30 | Air Marshal Sreekumar Prabhakaran, AVSM, VM | 1 November 2021 | 28 February 2022 | Later Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Air Command. |
| 31 | Air Marshal B Chandra Sekhar, AVSM | 1 March 2022 | 31 August 2023 | |
| 32 | Air Marshal Seethepalli Shrinivas, VSM | 1 September 2023 | Incumbent | Current Commandant. |