Southern Air Command
Emblem of the Southern Air Command
Founded19 July 1984
CountryIndia
BranchIndian Air Force
TypeOperational Air Command
HeadquartersThiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Motto(s)Sanskrit: Antariksham Prashasmahe
We Command the space
Commanders
Air Officer Commanding-in-ChiefAir Marshal Balakrishnan Manikantan, AVSM,VM

The Southern Air Command (SAC) of the Indian Air Force (IAF) is headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram, which is on the southwestern side of India. This is one among the seven commands of IAF. This command was started on 19 July 1984 and is relatively new among the other commands. The conflicts in Sri Lanka and the need for establishing a strong base over the Indian Ocean resulted to the formation of this new command. The SAC was inaugurated by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.[1]

From 1984 to 1999, the command grew from 5 lodger units to 17 lodger units under its jurisdiction. Air-sea rescue in the Indian Ocean may be among the command's tasks.

Organization

Squadrons include:

SquadronBaseEquipmentNotes
No. 121 Helicopter Flight, IAF Car Nicobar Air Force Station Mil Mi-8 No. 37 Wing
No. 122 Helicopter Flight, IAF Car Nicobar Air Force Station Mil Mi-8 No. 37 Wing
No. 33 Squadron IAF Sulur Air Force Station Antonov An-32 No. 43 Wing
No. 109 Helicopter Unit, IAF Sulur Air Force Station Mi-17 V5 No. 43 Wing
No. 45 Squadron IAF[2] Sulur Air Force Station HAL Tejas No. 43 Wing
No. 18 Squadron IAF[3] Sulur Air Force Station HAL Tejas
No. 222 Squadron IAF[4] Thanjavur Air Force Station Sukhoi Su-30 MKI[5] No. 47 Wing[6]
Technical area of the air command in Shangumukham near the Trivandrum International Airport

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

List of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief
Rank Name From To
Air Marshal Joseph Desa 18 June 1984[7] 30 November 1986
Rajagopal Sriramulu Naidu 1 January 1986[7] 30 September 1987
Gandharva Sen 21 December 1987[7] 31 October 1989
Suresh Chand 7 November 1989[7] 31 March 1991
Sukh Dev Mohan 13 May 1991[7] 30 April 1992
Ravinder Nath Bharadwaj 1 May 1992[7] 31 July 1993
Sherwin Derek Leslie Tully 3 September 1993[7] 31 March 1995
Bharat Kumar 1 May 1995[7] 30 April 1997
Krishnan Narayan Nair 1 May 1997[7] 2 June 1999
Darshan Singh Basra 15 January 1999[7] 31 August 2000
Manjit Singh Sekhon 1 September 2000[7] 12 March 2002
Tej Mohan Asthana 18 March 2002[7] 31 December 2002
Anil Kumar Trikha 1 January 2003[7] 31 December 2003
Sunil Kumar Malik 2 January 2004[7] 30 September 2004
Sharad Yeshwant Savur 1 August 2004[7] 31 August 2006
Padamjit Singh Ahluwalia 1 September 2006[7] 31 January 2007
Yashwant Rao Rane 1 February 2007[7] 31 March 2008
Suresh Chandra Mukul 1 April 2008[7] 30 September 2008
Sadasivan Radhakrishnan 1 October 2008[7] 31 August 2009
Sumit Mukerji 1 September 2009[7] 30 June 2011
Satish Pal Singh 1 July 2011[7] 31 July 2012
Rakesh Kumar Jolly 1 August 2012[7] 31 December 2013
Arun Purushottam Garud 1 January 2014[7] 31 May 2015
Jasbir Walia 1 June 2015[7] 31 July 2016
Sunderraman Neelakantan 1 August 2016 1 March 2017
Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria 1 March 2017 1 August 2018
Balakrishnan Suresh 1 August 2018 30 October 2019
Amit Tiwari 1 November 2019 31 January 2021
Manavendra Singh 1 February 2021 25 September 2021
Jonnalagedda Chalapati 4 October 2021 31 March 2023
Balakrishnan Manikantan 1 May 2023 Incumbent[8]

References

  1. ↑ Indian Air Force, Southern Air Command Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ "Tejas Commences Operations from Kerala's Sulur Air Force Station".
  3. ↑ Thomas, Wilson (27 May 2020). "IAF operationalises second LCA squadron, inducts first LCA Tejas in FOC standard". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  4. ↑ "Thanjavur set to host South India's first Sukhoi Squadron". 4 January 2020.
  5. ↑ "Sulur air base to get one more LCA squadron". The Times of India. 28 February 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  6. ↑ "Antony Dedicates to Nation New Air Force Station at Thanjavur".
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 "Southern Air Command - BRF". Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  8. ↑ "Sainik School, classmates on a high as new Southern Air Command chief takes over on Tuesday". Lokmat Times. 1 May 2023.
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