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Air Operations, Air HQ Date Raised : 1947-08-15 The Directorate of Operations was the first and most important Directorate under the PSO-Operations domain at Air HQ. At the time of Indepedence, the head of the Directorate was called Gp Capt (Operations) and soon thereafter Director (Operations). Sometime around 1960, the director was was split up into Directorate of Transport & Maritime and Directorate of Fighters & Bombers. The head of both these directorates reporting to the PSO-Operations directly. This practice continued till July 1970 when a series of reforms took place at Air HQ. A Post of ACAS (Operations) in the rank of Air Vice Marshal was created, reporting into the PSO Operations. The ACAS (Ops) had numberous directorates such as Air Defence, Offensive Ops, Transport & maritime and so on reporting into him. In 2009, this role was upgraded from ACAS to Director General (Air Operations) in the rank of Air Marshal.
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Commanding Officers | |||||
| Dates | Rank & Name | Number | Remarks | Location | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug 47 to 18 Nov 47 | Group Captain Mehar Singh | 1559 GD(P) | G/C (Operations) | Delhi |  |
| 27 Jan 48 to 30 Apr 48 | Group Captain Surendra Nath Goyal | 1560 GD(P) | G/C (Operations) | Delhi |  |
| 09 Aug 48 to 10 Dec 48 | Group Captain Arjan Singh | 1577 GD(P) | G/C (Operations) | Delhi |  |
| 11 Dec 48 to 31 Jan 49 | Group Captain G W F Haycock | RAF | G/C (Operations) | Delhi | |
| 01 Feb 49 to 30 Mar 50 | Group Captain G W F Haycock | RAF | Director (Operations) | Delhi | |
| 31 Mar 50 to 16 May 52 | Group Captain E W Whitlem | RAF | Director (Operations) | Delhi | |
| 17 May 52 to 29 Sep 54 | Group Captain Hrushikesh Moolgavkar | 1644 GD(P) | Director (Operations) | Delhi |  |
| 09 Oct 54 to 27 May 58 | Group Captain Ranjan Dutt | 1594 GD(P) | Director (Operations) | Delhi |  |
| 16 Jun 58 to 01 Dec 59 | Group Captain Keki Nadirshah Gocal | 1764 GD(P) | Director (Operations) | Delhi |  |
| 12 Jan 63 to 09 Aug 66 | Air Commodore Maurice Barker | 1691 GD(P) | Director (Operations) | Delhi |  |
| 10 Aug 66 to 31 Mar 68 | Air Commodore Madhav Bhawrao Naik | 1874 GD(P) | Director (Operations) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Apr 68 to 18 Jul 70 | Air Vice Marshal Syed Abbas Hussain | 1706 GD(P) | Director (Operations) | Delhi |  |
| 19 Jul 70 to 01 Dec 70 | Air Vice Marshal Sarosh Jehangir Dastur | 1792 GD(O) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| Unknown to 31 May 72 | Air Vice Marshal Bandi Sreeramulu Krishnarao | 1727 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| Unknown to | Air Vice Marshal Charandas Gurudas Devashar | 1867 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Jun 72 to 01 Dec 73 | Air Vice Marshal Edul Jahangir Dhatigara | 1899 GD(O) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| Unknown to 09 Nov 76 | Air Vice Marshal John Jasper Bouche | 2938 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| Unknown to 15 Apr 80 | Air Vice Marshal Malcolm Shirley Dundas Wollen | 3641 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Sep 80 to 01 Sep 83 | Air Vice Marshal Subramaniam Raghavendran | 3840 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Sep 83 to 06 May 85 | Air Vice Marshal Surendra Kumar Mehra | 4197 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 07 May 85 to | Air Marshal Surendra Kumar Mehra | 4197 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi | |
| 01 Aug 85 to 28 Feb 87 | Air Vice Marshal Pirthi Singh | 4480 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Mar 87 to | Air Vice Marshal Denzil Joseph Keelor | 4805 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Sep 89 to 01 Apr 90 | Air Vice Marshal Brijesh Dhar Jayal | 4972 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Apr 90 to 22 Jun 91 | Air Vice Marshal Trilochan Singh | 5043 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Nov 90 to | Air Vice Marshal Dinanath Ramchander Nadkarni | 5587 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Jun 94 to 31 Jan 96 | Air Vice Marshal Vinod Kumar Bhatia | 6497 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Jun 96 to 01 Jan 99 | Air Vice Marshal Michael McMahon | 7399 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Jan 99 to 30 Aug 99 | Air Vice Marshal Tej Mohan Asthana | 7672 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Sep 99 to 01 Dec 00 | Air Vice Marshal Shashindra Pal Tyagi | 8130 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Dec 00 to 01 Feb 02 | Air Vice Marshal Narayan Menon | 9005 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Feb 02 to 09 Oct 04 | Air Vice Marshal Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale | 11630 GD(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Dec 04 to 31 Oct 06 | Air Vice Marshal Suresh Chandra Mukul | 12930 F(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| Unknown to 31 May 09 | Air Vice Marshal Anjan Kumar Gogoi | 13382 F(P) | ACAS (Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 12 Mar 09 to 30 Jun 09 | Air Marshal Dinesh Chandra Kumaria | 13366 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Jun 09 to 31 Dec 10 | Air Marshal Anjan Kumar Gogoi | 13382 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi | |
| 01 Jan 11 to 31 Jan 13 | Air Marshal Daljit Singh | 14553 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Mar 13 to 31 Dec 14 | Air Marshal Shirish Baban Deo | 15681 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 13 Jan 15 to 30 Jun 16 | Air Marshal Anil Khosla | 15871 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 22 Aug 16 to 30 Sep 18 | Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora | 16557 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Oct 18 to 31 Oct 18 | Air Marshal Amit Dev | 16972 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Nov 19 to 30 Jun 21 | Air Marshal Balabhadra Radha Krishna | 17326 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Jul 21 to 31 Dec 22 | Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha | 17842 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi |  |
| 01 Jan 23 to | Air Marshal Surat Singh | 18563 F(P) | DG (Air Ops) | Delhi |  |
The URL for this page is http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/Units/DGAO AHQ
Note: All the data available here is publicly available in the Gazette of India, published by the Indian Government, or from public domain sources, press releases about Awards and Right-To-Information (RTI) Requests. Additionally data shared by veterans is added to the page with permission. No data with respect to serving officers below the rank of AVM is displayed. Information in Gazette of India and Award citations and photographs as released by the Indian Air Force are the only details displayed.