Air Vice Marshal Rameshwar Nath (8913) AE (L) was commissioned in Air Force in Oct 64 in AE (L) Branch (erstwhile Tec/Sigs). During his 37 years of service, the officer has maintained an impeccable record - both in terms of his professionalism as well as human relations.

He was associated with Air Defence Ground Environment (ADGES) Communication System right from the inception of the RCPO project. He was detailed for ADGES communication course in the USA in 1974, after which he was the first batch of ADGES TI instructors. After teaching for 2 ½ years, he headed the installation unit at the major ADGES communication hub centre at Kasauli. After a stint of 5 years of staff work at Air HQ, the officer was sent to command ADGES communication units at Mt Abu, Baroda and Dalhousie in succession. The vast experience of the officer in ADGES comm unication was utilized for inspection duties in DMI from 1991 to 1995. During his tenure at DMI, the officer headed the team to conduct quality audit of MiG-29 fleet - the first ever quality audit in Air Force, which was well received and implemented.

As an Air Commodore, he held the appointments of Command Signals Officer at HQ Eastern Air Command and thereafter, Director Signals (Air) at Air HQ. During these tenures, a major part of old exchanges were replaced by electronic exchanges. The officer was instrumental in preparing the first blue print of Air Force Component of Defence Communication Network and induction of The Integrated Cipher System (ICS) for securing data exchanges between computers over LAN/ WAN. The officer introduced the hiring of Data Communication circuits from DOT in place of Speech Communication circuits, which were thereafter modified to be used both for speech as well as data communication.

As an Air Vice Marshal, the officer was appointed as ACAS (Eng-B) to look after the Indo-western aircraft fleet. The officer initiated many new measures, as given below, during his tenure: a. Revision of Maintenance Schedules for Jaguar and Mirage aircraft, so as to reduce the number of servicings. This led not only to saving but increased fleet availability. b. Setting up of 1200/2400 hrs servicing for Dornier at Sulur. c. During the Kargil operations, the avai-lability of Mirage aircraft was increased from 24 to 33 by hastening supply of spares and repair efforts from OEMs in France. Based on experience, the officer initiated cases for procurement of additional rotables and role equipment to strengthen Mirage fleet.

The officer has also worked as ACAS (System) for more than a year. His major contribution during the tenure was streamlining the Matcal Project for repair/calibration of aircraft testers, induction of UAVs/LDPs and modification of aircraft for fitment of CDMS/ GPS. The issue of life expiry of majority of Air Launched Missiles in next 3 to 4 years was brought to the fore while recommendation for setting of life extension/refurbishment facilities within India. After extensive discussion, MOD has designated BDL as the agency to set up facilities for undertaking this task. This project may save millions to exchequer.

Air Vice Marshal Rameshwar Nath has, thus, rendered distinguished service of an exceptional order.