# Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (India)

The Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS) is a senior appointment in the Indian Air Force. 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.

## 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. 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. In 1968, the post was upgraded to three-star rank Air Marshal.
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.

## Appointees

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