# Vice Chief of the Air Staff (India)

The Vice Chief of the Air Staff (VCAS) is the deputy to the Chief of the Air Staff of India and second-highest ranking officer of the Indian Air Force. The VCAS is a PSO (Principal Staff Officer) at Air Headquarters at New Delhi. In the event that the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) is absent or is unable to perform his duties, the VCAS assumes the duties and responsibilities of the CAS. The VCAS is normally held by an officer of three star rank and is held by an air officer of the rank of Air Marshal.
The current VCAS is Air Marshal Sujeet Pushpakar Dharkar. He succeeded Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh to the post on 3 October 2024. As Vice Chief, Air Marshal SP Dharkar will directly be in charge of IAF's ongoing capability build-up and visualizing its future technology requirements.

## 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.
The office of VCAS was first held by D. A. R. Nanda. The appointment was then in the two-star rank of air vice marshal. On 15 January 1966, the office was raised to the three-star rank of Air Marshal and Pratap Chandra Lal was promoted to the rank.

## Order of Precedence

The VCAS ranks at No. 23 on the Indian order of precedence, along with the Vice Chiefs of Staff of the Indian Army and Indian Navy and the Army Commanders (GOC-in-C), Naval Commanders (FOC-in-C) and Air Commanders (AOC-in-C). The VCAS is at the Apex Pay grade (Grade 17), with a monthly pay of ₹225,000 (US$3,200).

## Appointees

| No. | Rank | Name | Appointment date | Left office |
| 1 | Air Vice Marshal | Diwan Atma Ram Nanda | 1 January 1963 | 4 August 1963 |
| 2 | Air Vice Marshal | Arjan Singh** | 5 August 1963 | 31 July 1964 |
| 3 | Air Vice Marshal | Pratap Chandra Lal** | 1 October 1964 | 14 January 1966 |
| 3 | Air Marshal | Pratap Chandra Lal** | 15 January 1966 | 1 September 1966 |
| 4 | Air Marshal | Ramaswamy Rajaram | 13 December 1966 | 18 June 1969 |
| 5 | Air Marshal | Shivdev Singh | 15 July 1969 | 31 March 1973 |
| 6 | Air Marshal | Yeshwant Vinayak Malse | 1 April 1973 | 30 September 1973 |
| 7 | Air Marshal | Hari Chand Dewan | 1 October 1973 | 31 March 1976 |
| 8 | Air Marshal | Anand Ramdas Pandit | 1 April 1976 | 31 March 1977 |
| 9 | Air Marshal | Devaiah Subia | 1 April 1977 | 19 May 1977 |
| 10 | Air Marshal | Idris Hasan Latif** | 20 May 1977 | 31 August 1978 |
| 11 | Air Marshal | Edul Jahangir Dhatigara | 4 September 1978 | 31 January 1980 |
| 12 | Air Marshal | Lal Singh Grewal | 1 February 1980 | 31 December 1980 |
| 13 | Air Marshal | Dilbagh Singh | 1 January 1981 | 31 August 1981 |
| 14 | Air Marshal | Trilochan Singh Brar | 22 September 1981 | 31 December 1983 |
| 15 | Air Marshal | Jagdish Raj Bhasin | 1 January 1984 | 31 October 1984 |
| 16 | Air Marshal | Prem Pal Singh | 1 November 1984 | 31 October 1984 |
| 17 | Air Marshal | Subramaniam Raghavendran | 1 January 1986 | 29 February 1988 |
| 18 | Air Marshal | Nirmal Chandra Suri** | 1 March 1988 | 31 August 1991 |
| 19 | Air Marshal | Palamadai Muthuswamy Ramachandran | 14 October 1991 | 28 February 1993 |
| 20 | Air Marshal | Pondicherry Jayarao Jayakumar | 1 March 1993 | 30 April 1994 |
| 21 | Air Marshal | Pratap Rao | 6 June 1994 | 31 July 1995 |
| 22 | Air Marshal | Satish Kumar Sareen** | 1 August 1995 | 31 December 1995 |
| 23 | Air Marshal | Trevor Raymond Joseph Osman | 1 January 1996 | 31 March 1997 |
| 24 | Air Marshal | Anil Yashwant Tipnis** | 1 April 1997 | 31 December 1998 |
| 25 | Air Marshal | Prithvi Singh Brar | 4 January 1999 | 31 July 2000 |
| 26 | Air Marshal | Vinod Patney | 1 August 2000 | 31 July 2001 |
| 27 | Air Marshal | Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy** | 1 August 2001 | 31 December 2001 |
| 28 | Air Marshal | Satish Govind Inamdar | 1 January 2002 | 31 January 2003 |
| 29 | Air Marshal | Michael McMahon | 1 February 2003 | 30 September 2004 |
| 30 | Air Marshal | Sunil Kumar Malik | 1 October 2004 | 31 July 2005 |
| 31 | Air Marshal | Ajit Bhavnani | 22 August 2005 | 31 October 2006 |
| 32 | Air Marshal | B. N. Gokhale | 1 November 2006 | 31 December 2007 |
| 33 | Air Marshal | Pradeep Vasant Naik** | 1 January 2008 | 31 May 2009 |
| 34 | Air Marshal | Pranab Kumar Barbora | 1 June 2009 | 31 December 2010 |
| 35 | Air Marshal | Norman Anil Kumar Browne** | 1 January 2011 | 31 July 2011 |
| 36 | Air Marshal | Krishan Kumar Nohwar | 1 August 2011 | 31 May 2012 |
| 37 | Air Marshal | Dinesh Chandra Kumaria | 1 June 2012 | 30 June 2013 |
| 38 | Air Marshal | Arup Raha** | 1 July 2013 | 31 December 2013 |
| 39 | Air Marshal | Ravi Kant Sharma | 31 December 2013 | 30 May 2015 |
| 40 | Air Marshal | Birender Singh Dhanoa** | 31 May 2015 | 31 December 2016 |
| 41 | Air Marshal | Shirish Baban Deo | 31 December 2016 | 30 September 2018 |
| 42 | Air Marshal | Anil Khosla | 1 October 2018 | 30 April 2019 |
| 43 | Air Marshal | Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria** | 1 May 2019 | 30 September 2019 |
| 44 | Air Marshal | Harjit Singh Arora | 1 October 2019 | 30 June 2021 |
| 45 | Air Marshal | Vivek Ram Chaudhari** | 1 July 2021 | 30 September 2021 |
| 46 | Air Marshal | Sandeep Singh | 1 October 2021 | 31 January 2023 |
| 47 | Air Marshal | Amar Preet Singh** | 1 February 2023 | 30 September 2024 |
| 48 | Air Marshal | Sujeet Pushpakar Dharkar | 3 October 2024 | Incumbent |
** Went on to become Chief of the Air Staff