South Western Air Command
Military unit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The South Western Air Command (SWAC) is one of the five operational commands of the Indian Air Force, headquartered in Gandhinagar. It was raised in Jodhpur in July 1980 from the No.1 Operations Group of the Western Air Command. Its operations sector includes most of Rajasthan, through Gujarat and Saurashtra, as far south as Kutch and Pune. The SWAC moved to its current headquarters in Gandhinagar in May 1998, and incorporates the Indian airbases of Bhuj, Jaisalmer, Phalodi, Naliya, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Uttarlai/Barmer and Pune. It controls air operations in the south western air sector, which includes most of Rajasthan, and south through Gujarat to Saurashtra, and Kutch to Pune. It also operates the forward airbases at Vadodara, Nal and Suratgarh. The SWAC's role has historically been largely of air defence, although it has been reported to have incorporated a strike profile.
| South Western Air Command Indian Air Force | |
|---|---|
Emblem of the South Western Air Command | |
| Founded | 23 July 1980 |
| Country | India |
| Branch | Indian Air Force |
| Type | Operational Air Command |
| Role | Air Defence, Maritime strike role. |
| Headquarters | Gandhinagar |
| Mottos | Sanskrit: Jai Shree Varte Veeramh Victory embraces the brave |
| Engagements | Atlantique incident, Bhuj earthquake relief, 2001, Gujarat flood relief, 2005 |
| Commanders | |
| Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief | Air Marshal Tejinder Singh, AVSM, VM |
Organisation
Squadrons include:
Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief
| Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief South Western Air Command | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.No | Rank | Name | Assumed office | Left office | References |
| 1 | Air Marshal | Jagdish Raj Bhasin | 23 July 1980 | 30 June 1983 | [2] |
| 2 | Chandra Kant Viswanath Gole | 1 July 1983 | 31 October 1984 | [2] | |
| 3 | Subramaniam Raghavendran | 1 November 1984 | 6 January 1986 | [2] | |
| 4 | Prem Pal Singh | 8 January 1986 | 28 February 1987 | [2] | |
| 5 | Surendra Kumar Mehra | 1 March 1987 | 31 July 1988 | [2] | |
| 6 | Partha Kumar Dey | 1 August 1988 | 31 March 1992 | [2] | |
| 7 | Brijesh Dhar Jayal | 1 April 1992 | 30 September 1993 | [2] | |
| 8 | Satish Kumar Sareen | 6 October 1993 | 3 June 1994 | [2] | |
| 9 | Kodendera Cariappa Cariappa | 6 June 1994 | 31 January 1996 | [2] | |
| 10 | Sharadkumar Ramakrishna Deshpande | 1 February 1996 | 30 November 1997 | [2] | |
| 11 | Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy | 1 December 1997 | 31 October 1999 | [2] | |
| 12 | Vinod Kumar Bhatia | 1 November 1999 | 31 July 2001 | [2] | |
| 13 | Michael McMahon | 1 August 2001 | 31 January 2003 | [2] | |
| 14 | Shashindra Pal Tyagi | 1 February 2003 | 14 November 2003 | [2] | |
| 15 | Adi Rustomji Ghandhi | 17 November 2003 | 31 June 2004 | [2] | |
| 16 | Satish Kumar Jain | 12 July 2004 | 28 February 2006 | [2] | |
| 17 | Pramod Kumar Mehra | 1 March 2006 | 30 April 2007 | [2] | |
| 18 | Kanwar Dalinderjit Singh | 1 May 2007 | 30 September 2009 | [2] | |
| 19 | Paramjit Singh Bhangu | 1 October 2009 | 31 December 2010 | [2] | |
| 20 | Anjan Kumar Gogoi | 1 January 2011 | 28 February 2013 | [2] | |
| 21 | Daljit Singh | 1 March 2013 | 31 October 2014 | [2] | |
| 22 | Birender Singh Dhanoa | 1 November 2014 | 31 May 2015 | [2] | |
| 23 | Ravinder Kumar Dhir | 1 June 2015 | 30 September 2018 | [3] | |
| 24 | Harjit Singh Arora | 1 October 2018 | 30 September 2019 | [4] | |
| 25 | Surendra Kumar Ghotia | 1 October 2019 | 30 April 2021 | [5] | |
| 26 | Sandeep Singh | 1 May 2021 | 30 September 2021 | [6] | |
| 27 | Vikram Singh | 1 October 2021 | 30 April 2023 | [7] | |
| 28 | Narmdeshwar Tiwari | 1 May 2023 | 30 April 2025 | [8] | |
| 29 | Nagesh Kapoor | 1 May 2025 | 31 December 2025 | [9] | |
| 30 | Tejinder Singh | 1 January 2026 | Incumbent | [10] | |