Who is Air Marshal AP Singh, the new Vice Chief of Indian Air Force?
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College, and National Defence College, Singh has been a Flight Commander and Commanding Officer of a MiG 27 squadron and Air Officer Commanding of an air base.
Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh will take over as the new Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force on Wednesday, succeeding incumbent Air Marshal Sandeep Singh, PTI reported quoting officials. Currently serving as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Central Air Command, Singh's Indian Air Force journey dates back to 1984.
Here's everything you need to know about the new IAF vice-chief:-
1) Singh was commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF on December 21, 1984. Before taking charge of the prestigious Central Air Command (CAC), he was a Senior Air Staff Officer at the Eastern Air Command.
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2) An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College, and National Defence College, Singh has been a Flight Commander and Commanding Officer of a MiG 27 squadron and Air Officer Commanding of an air base.
3) He is a qualified Flying Instructor and an Experimental Test Pilot with more than 4,900 hours of service flying on a variety of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. He has also served in Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment at various levels.
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4) Singh has led the MiG 29 Upgrade Project Management Team in Moscow, Russia. He has also served as Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Project Director (Flight Test) at ‘National Flight Test Centre’ and Air Defence Commander at South Western Air Command.
5) The Air Marshal has also been awarded the ‘Ati Vishisht Seva Medal’ by the President of India on Republic Day in 2019 for his ‘distinguished’ services.
(With PTI inputs)