Training Command (India)

Training Command is the Indian Air Force's command responsible for flying and ground training.

Air Training Command
Emblem of the Training Air Command
Founded22 July 1949
CountryIndia
BranchIndian Air Force
TypeOperational Air Command
RoleFlying and ground training.
HeadquartersBangalore, Karnataka
Motto(s)Sanskrit: Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya
"From darkness, lead us unto Light"
Commanders
Air Officer Commanding-in-ChiefAir Marshal Nagesh Kapoor, AVSM, VM

In the 1930s, the approaching threat and later advent of World War II and the leaning of Japan towards the Axis powers, the latter was considered as a potential enemy. Therefore, need was felt to make IAF a self-supporting force for the South Eastern Theatre of war. This led to the rapid expansion of the IAF. A target was fixed of 10 IAF Squadrons. With this expansion, the requirement of pilots and technical personnel increased. For the training of technical personnel, a technical training school was set up at Ambala in 1940.

In a 1949 reorganisation of the Indian Air Force, while frontline units were put under the Operations Command, all the training institutions were placed under the jurisdiction of the Training Command.[1]

Among Training Command's units is the Navigation Training School at Begumpet Air Force Station, Hyderabad. It flies the BAe HS. 748,[2] the Basic Flying Training School and the Air Force Administrative College. The Hawk Operational Training Squadron and Weapon System Operators' School are located at Bidar Air Force Station which flows the Hawk Mk 132 trainer aircraft.

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

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List of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief
Rank Name From To
Air commodore Ravinder Hari Darshan Singh 22 July 1949[3] 3 December 1952
Surendra Nath Goyal 17 December 1952[3] 10 January 1956
Pratap Chandra Lal 11 January 1956[3] 20 November 1957
Kanwar Jaswant Singh 27 May 1958[3] 22 March 1959
Ranjan Dutt 23 March 1959[3] 12 April 1960
Air Vice Marshal 13 April 1960[3] 29 December 1960
Surendra Nath Goyal 1 April 1961[3] 6 August 1966
Teja Singh Virk 10 August 1966[3] 22 August 1969
Victor Srihari 30 August 1969[3] 3 March 1972
Anand Ramdas Pandit 4 March 1972[3] 8 April 1973
Gian Dev Sharma 9 April 1973[3] 29 June 1947
George Kanishtkumar John 1 July 1974[3] 22 March 1976
Air Marshal Maurice Barker 22 April 1976[3] 22 September 1976
Randhir Singh 23 October 1976[3] 29 April 1978
Hemant Ramkrishna Chitnis 11 May 1978[3] 19 February 1979
George Kanishtkumar John 20 February 1979[3] 30 September 1979
Balwant Wickram Chauhan 29 October 1979[3] 19 September 1981
Erasseri Pathayapurayil Radhakrishnan Nair 20 October 1981[3] 28 February 1985
Vir Narain 1 March 1985[3] 30 November 1987
Jagdish Kumar Seth 1 December 1987[3] 30 September 1991
Rajendra Kumar Dhawan 7 October 1991[3] 31 May 1993
Verinder Puri 3 September 1993[3] 31 May 1995
Krishna Bihari Singh 1 July 1995[3] 31 December 1997
Jagbir Singh Rai 1 January 1998[3] 31 March 2001
Teshter Jall Master 1 April 2001[3] 31 December 2002
Bijoy Krishna Pandey 3 February 2003[3] 31 May 2004
Subhash Bhojwani 12 July 2004[3] 31 January 2006
Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale 1 March 2006[3] 31 October 2006
Gurnam Singh Choudhary 1 November 2006[3] 30 April 2008
Venkataraman Ramamurthy Iyer 1 May 2008[3] 30 November 2010
Dhiraj Kukreja 1 December 2010[3] 29 February 2012
Rajinder Singh 1 March 2012[3] 30 June 2013
Paramjit Singh Gill 1 July 2013[3] 30 June 2014
Ramesh Rai 1 July 2014[3] 31 July 2015
Sridharan Panicker Radha Krishnan Nair 1 September 2015[3] 31 July 2018
Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria 1 August 2018[3] 30 April 2019
Surendra Kumar Ghotia 1 May 2019[3] 30 September 2019
Arvindra Singh Butola 1 October 2019[3] 30 September 2020
Rajiv Dayal Mathur 1 October 2020[3] 31 July 2021[4]
Manavendra Singh 25 September 2021[3] 31 December 2022
Radhakrishnan Radhish 1 January 2023[5] 30 April 2024
Nagesh Kapoor 1 May 2024 Incumbent

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Sarkar, Hindustan year-book and who's who, 536
  2. ^ Dutch Aviation Society, Indian Air Force Order of Battle Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, verified October 2011
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an "Training Command - BRF". Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  4. ^ "Rapid Turnover in IAF Brass". Bharat Shakti. 2021-05-29.
  5. ^ "Training Command IAF". IAF. 2023-01-01.

Sources

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