Air Marshal Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyaya was commissioned in the IAF on 1st September, 1956. Throughout his long career he has held with distinction a variety of appointments at Squadrons, Wings, Base Repair Depots, Command and Air Headquarters. A special mention must be made of his work as Member­Secretary of the Specialist Committee on Chetak/Cheetah helicopters.

During his tenure as Chief Engineering Officer, HQ SWAC, a Sprinkler System for stabilizing sand was successfully developed. The same has since been standardized and is being manufactured.

While undergoing the National Defence College course in 1987, the Air Officer's two articles on Defence/Economic matters got published in 'Yojna' the Planning Commission journal. As Senior Maintenance Staff Officer, CAC, he worked most effectively to ensure high serviceability of the combat, transport and helicopter fleets and ADGES systems. During his tenure as the ACAS (Eng 'A'), serviceability and availability of the Soviet origin combat, transport and helicopter fleets increased significantly. The Air Officer has been appointed as Air Officer Incharge Maintenance, Air Headquarters.

Air Marshal Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyaya has thus rendered distinguished service of an exceptional order.

Having been commissioned in the Aeronautical Engineering (Mechanical) (AE (M) ) Branch of the Indian Air Force on 03 Sep 56, Air Marshal Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyaya (5337) rose to the present appointment of the Air Officer Incharge Maintenance (AOM) at Air Headquarters. During his long and distinguished service career, the Air Officer had held various key and staff appointments such as Air Officer Commanding (AOC) 402 Station, Director Maintenance Plans and Inspection at Air Headquarters, Senior Maintenance Staff Officer of an operational Command and that of Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Engineering A) for which he was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in January 1991.

On taking over as Air Officer Incharqe Maintenance, Air Marshal Mukhopadhyaya had to face a spate of critical problems confronting the maintenance management which were to be tackled judiciously and promptly in the interest of operational preparedness. There were two major constraints, namely, depleted funds available owing to the financial crunch on the on hand and declining product support for the combat as well as transport aircraft and helicopters forming the bulk of the Air Force, from the erstwhile Soviet Union, on the other hand. These problems were to be effectively handled to keep the operational preparedness of the Air Force. Air Marshal Mukhopdhyaya with his technical acumen and administrative ability braved the challenges to ensure that operational requirements are not unduly impaired or adversely affected. Inadequate product support from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was another problem to be solved. With his personal involvement and incessant efforts, he has been able to extract more, satisfying product support from that agency. To keep pace with the fast changing times, computerisation of logistics management systems in the Indian Air Force was a long awaited need. On his personal initiative, a final shape was given to this aspect, a measure which would accelerate speedier supplies to the units. Another thrust area is indigenisation of aircraft spares and equipment. A number of projects aimed at expediting indigenisation efforts have been initiated under his watchful eyes, the successful implementation of which could greatly help tide over the crisis situation created by shortage in many of the imported items.

Air Marshal Ama1 Kumar Mukhopadhyaya, AVSM has thus rendered distinguished service of the most exceptional order.