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.

Commanding Officers

View in Grid

DatesRank & NameNumberRemarksLocationPhoto
19 Jul 70 to 01 Dec 70Air Vice Marshal Sarosh Jehangir Dastur1792 GD(O)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
Unknown to 31 May 72Air Vice Marshal Bandi Sreeramulu Krishnarao1727 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
Unknown to Air Vice Marshal Charandas Gurudas Devashar1867 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Jun 72 to 01 Dec 73Air Vice Marshal Edul Jahangir Dhatigara1899 GD(O)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
Unknown to 09 Nov 76Air Vice Marshal John Jasper Bouche2938 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
Unknown to 15 Apr 80Air Vice Marshal Malcolm Shirley Dundas Wollen3641 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Sep 80 to 01 Sep 83Air Vice Marshal Subramaniam Raghavendran3840 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Sep 83 to 06 May 85Air Vice Marshal Surendra Kumar Mehra4197 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
07 May 85 to Air Marshal Surendra Kumar Mehra4197 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Aug 85 to 28 Feb 87Air Vice Marshal Pirthi Singh4480 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Mar 87 to Air Vice Marshal Denzil Joseph Keelor4805 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Sep 89 to 01 Apr 90Air Vice Marshal Brijesh Dhar Jayal4972 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Apr 90 to 22 Jun 91Air Vice Marshal Trilochan Singh5043 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Nov 90 to Air Vice Marshal Dinanath Ramchander Nadkarni5587 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Jun 94 to 31 Jan 96Air Vice Marshal Vinod Kumar Bhatia6497 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Jun 96 to 01 Jan 99Air Vice Marshal Michael McMahon7399 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Jan 99 to 30 Aug 99Air Vice Marshal Tej Mohan Asthana7672 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Sep 99 to 01 Dec 00Air Vice Marshal Shashindra Pal Tyagi8130 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Dec 00 to 01 Feb 02Air Vice Marshal Narayan Menon9005 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Feb 02 to 09 Oct 04Air Vice Marshal Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale11630 GD(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
01 Dec 04 to 31 Oct 06Air Vice Marshal Suresh Chandra Mukul12930 F(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
Unknown to 31 May 09Air Vice Marshal Anjan Kumar Gogoi13382 F(P)ACAS (Ops)Delhi
12 Mar 09 to 30 Jun 09Air Marshal Dinesh Chandra Kumaria13366 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
01 Jun 09 to 31 Dec 10Air Marshal Anjan Kumar Gogoi13382 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
01 Jan 11 to 31 Jan 13Air Marshal Daljit Singh14553 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
01 Mar 13 to 31 Dec 14Air Marshal Shirish Baban Deo15681 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
13 Jan 15 to 30 Jun 16Air Marshal Anil Khosla15871 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
22 Aug 16 to 30 Sep 18Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora16557 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
01 Oct 18 to 31 Oct 18Air Marshal Amit Dev16972 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
01 Nov 19 to 30 Jun 21Air Marshal Balabhadra Radha Krishna17326 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
01 Jul 21 to 31 Dec 22Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha17842 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
01 Jan 23 to Air Marshal Surat Singh18563 F(P)DG (Air Ops)Delhi
15 Aug 47 to 18 Nov 47Group Captain Mehar Singh1559 GD(P)G/C (Operations)Delhi
27 Jan 48 to 30 Apr 48Group Captain Surendra Nath Goyal1560 GD(P)G/C (Operations)Delhi
09 Aug 48 to 10 Dec 48Group Captain Arjan Singh1577 GD(P)G/C (Operations)Delhi
11 Dec 48 to 31 Jan 49Group Captain G W F HaycockRAFG/C (Operations)Delhi
01 Feb 49 to 30 Mar 50Group Captain G W F HaycockRAFDirector (Operations)Delhi
31 Mar 50 to 16 May 52Group Captain E W WhitlemRAFDirector (Operations)Delhi
17 May 52 to 29 Sep 54Group Captain Hrushikesh Moolgavkar1644 GD(P)Director (Operations)Delhi
09 Oct 54 to 27 May 58Group Captain Ranjan Dutt1594 GD(P)Director (Operations)Delhi
16 Jun 58 to 01 Dec 59Group Captain Keki Nadirshah Gocal1764 GD(P)Director (Operations)Delhi
12 Jan 63 to 09 Aug 66Air Commodore Maurice Barker1691 GD(P)Director (Operations)Delhi
10 Aug 66 to 31 Mar 68Air Commodore Madhav Bhawrao Naik1874 GD(P)Director (Operations)Delhi
01 Apr 68 to 18 Jul 70Air Vice Marshal Syed Abbas Hussain1706 GD(P)Director (Operations)Delhi

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.