Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit to Take Over as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff on 31 October

8 October 2026National

Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, currently Vice Chief of the Air Staff, will take charge as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff on the afternoon of 31 October 2026, succeeding Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, who retires the same day. Commissioned into the fighter stream on 6 December 1986, Dixit is an experimental test pilot with over 3,500 flying hours on the Mirage 2000, MiG variants, Jaguar, LCA Tejas, Hawk, Kiran and IL-78. He has served in Operation Safed Sagar, Operation Rakshak and Operation Sindoor, and previously as Chief of Integrated Defence Staff. His honours include the PVSM (2026), AVSM, VM and VSM.

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The Indian Air Force was raised on 8 October 1932 as the Royal Indian Air Force; its motto is 'Nabha Sparsham Deeptam' and its headquarters is Vayu Bhawan, New Delhi | Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee was the first Indian Chief of the Air Staff (1954); Arjan Singh is the only IAF officer promoted to Marshal of the Air Force | Operation Safed Sagar was the IAF's component of the 1999 Kargil conflict

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