Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit Takes Charge as 29th Chief of the Indian Air Force

Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit assumed charge as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force on the afternoon of 31 October. He succeeds Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, who retired after more than four decades of service. The government announced the appointment on 6 October while Dixit was serving as Vice Chief of the Air Staff.

Born on 9 December 1966, Dixit was commissioned into the fighter stream on 6 December 1986. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, the Defence Services Command and Staff College in Bangladesh, and the National Defence College. He holds more than 3,500 flying hours on aircraft that include the Mirage-2000, MiG variants, Kiran, Jaguar, IL-78, Hawk and the indigenous Tejas. He is an experimental test pilot and a qualified flying instructor.

His operational record includes Operation Safed Sagar, Operation Rakshak and Operation Sindoor. Before becoming Vice Chief on 1 July 2026 he served as Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee and, earlier, as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command. In the Integrated Defence Staff role he was involved in tri-service coordination during the period that included Operation Sindoor.

Dixit has received the Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Vayu Sena Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal. His tenure as Chief of the Air Staff runs until 31 December 2028. The appointment continues the recent pattern of selecting officers who have held both operational command and joint-staff appointments.

The change of leadership occurs while the Indian Air Force continues to induct and upgrade indigenous platforms, including further Tejas variants, and while it manages the retirement of older fleets. Dixit’s test-pilot background and his prior work on the Tejas programme place him in a position to influence the pace of those inductions. How the service balances new aircraft deliveries, training capacity and operational readiness under the new chief will become clearer in the first operational reviews of 2027.