Details : | Group Captain Umesh Chandra Sharma (21407) was commissioned in the Indian Air Force as an engineer in the Aeronautical Engineering (Electronics) branch on 30 Sep 91. With his rich experience as an engineering officer in a MiG-27 squadron and Tech Flight. his contributions in the fleet operations during Op Vijay and Op Parakram were appreciable, for which he was commended by the AOC-in-C and the CAS. He was instrumental in setting up the first Su-30 MKI Tech Flight in the IAF The induction methodology and innovative TTGEs developed under his supervision resulted in systematic setting up of servicing facilities. He was deputed for three years to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) for training their personnel. The new training paradigms developed by him were implemented across the RMAF. He was felicitated by the Chief of RMAF and commended by the CAS for the same. Thereafter. as the Senior Engineering Officer of Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment, he was instrumental in induction of Su-30 MKI and conduct of four FCL/FSL courses and three IAF level exercises while attaining record serviceability. The officer was posted as Chief Engineering Officer of a fighter base in June 2012. He was mandated to turn around the maintenance environment that was beset with problems of low serviceability. He grasped the essentials of the task and devised a prognostic road map. He moulded his team towards attaining result oriented KRAs based on self help. His domain mapping based Skill Improvement Plan (SIP), Knowledge Improvement Plan (KIP) and Resource Improvement Plan (RIP) increased proficiency of workers and supervisors along with speedy recovery of unserviceable TTGEs and LRUs. This coupled with astute man, material and process management reduced various servicing periods by 30 to 40 percent leading to increased and consistent sustenance of aircraft serviceability at much higher level than the IAF average, thereby. directly enhancing the war waging capability of IAF. His unrelenting focus on maintenance safety resulted in NIL incidents of Human Error (Servicing). His innovative thinking led to many useful firsts, like review of all weapon loading & radar tuning publications of SU-30, digitized SARBE testers, three tier Radio Telephony backup and doubling of Radio Telephony ranges of Air Traffic Control. During surprise inspection. DASI adjudged all major maintenance sections as average plus and suggested that his initiatives like the supervisory booklet, HE(S) booklet and task card compendium be made standard across the Su-30 fleet and also be emulated by other fleets. For distinguished service of high order, Hon'ble President is pleased to award Vishisht Seva Medal to Group Captain Umesh Chandra Sharma. |