On Saturday, the government said that Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh, 59, will succeed Air leader Marshal VR Chaudhari, who is set to retire after three years in office, as the next leader of the Indian Air Force on September 30.
Singh has been closely associated with the Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) programme, a platform whose newer variants will form the cornerstone of IAF’s combat power in the coming decade and beyond.
He will take charge of the world’s fourth largest air force in the rank of Air Chief Marshal at a time when it is aggressively modernising its capabilities with locally produced military hardware, the armed forces are charting a path towards theaterisation, a long-awaited reform for the best use of the military’s resources to fight future wars, and the country is locked in a dragging military standoff with China in the Ladakh sector.
An accomplished fighter pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience, Singh is currently serving as the IAF’s vice chief. He was commissioned into the air force in December 1984.
In a distinguished career spanning almost 40 years, he has served in a variety of command, staff, instructional and foreign appointments, the defence ministry said in a statement.
Singh has commanded an operational fighter squadron, a frontline airbase, led the MiG-29 upgrade project management team in Moscow and served as the project director (flight test) at the premier National Flight Test Centre in Bengaluru, a role in which he was involved in the flight testing of the Tejas LCA Mk-1.
The other appointments held by him include Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command, Senior Air Staff Officer at Eastern Air Command and Air Defence Commander at South Western Air Command.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, and National Defence College, New Delhi, Singh is a qualified flying instructor and an experimental test pilot.
Singh takes over the top job at a time when the LCA Mk-1A (an advanced variant of the Mk-1 aircraft) programme is delayed and IAF is concerned about the possible risks this could pose to its combat effectiveness.
The issue has been flagged to the manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautic Limited (HAL), which has been nudged to execute the ₹48,000-crore contract for 83 fighters on time, by 2028-29. Also, the defence ministry could award HAL a contract for 97 more LCA Mk-1As worth ₹67,000 crore by the year-end.
Many in the air force are skeptical about the LCA Mk-1A deadlines being met, and one of the main reasons for that is the lingering delay in the supply of the F404 engines to HAL by US firm GE Aerospace.
To be sure, GE Aerospace has conveyed to HAL that it will start delivering two engines per month November 2024 onwards for the LCA Mk-1A programme. The single-engine Mk-1A will be a replacement for the IAF’s Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 fighter.
Other key modernization programmes in the works include the Sukhoi-30 upgrade by HAL at a cost of around ₹65,000 crore and the induction of more Prachand light combat helicopters. The Su-30 upgrade will involve equipping the fighters with the indigenous Uttam active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, electronic warfare suites, weapon control systems, avionics and new weapons.
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Source: HT
