South Western Air Command

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
Motto(s)	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 Nagesh Kapoor, PVSM, AVSM, VM[1]

Organisation

Squadrons include:

Squadron	Base	Equipment	Notes
No. 20 Squadron IAF	Lohegaon Air Force Station	Su-30MKI	No. 2 Wing
No. 30 Squadron IAF	Lohegaon Air Force Station	Su-30MKI	No. 2 Wing
No. 15 Squadron IAF	Bhuj Air Force Station	Su-30 MKI	No. 27 Wing
No. 31 Squadron IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	Su-30 MKI	No.32 Wing
No. 107 Helicopter Unit, IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	Mi-8	No. 32 Wing
No. 116 Helicopter Unit, IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	HAL Chetak	No. 32 Wing
No. 119 Helicopter Unit, IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	Mi-8	No. 32 Wing
No. 143 Helicopter Unit, IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	HAL Prachand
No. 6 Squadron IAF	Jamnagar Air Force Station	JaguarIS/IM/IB	No. 33 Wing
No. 28 Squadron IAF	Jamnagar Air Force Station	Mig 29	No.33 Wing
No. 141 SSS Flight, IAF	Jamnagar Air Force Station	HAL Chetak	No. 33 Wing IAF
No. 18 Squadron IAF[2]	Naliya Air Force Station	HAL Tejas	No. 49 Wing
No. 23 Squadron IAF	Suratgarh Air Force Station	Mig-21	No. 35 Wing IAF
No. 104 Helicopter Squadron, IAF	Suratgarh Air Force Station	Mi-35	No. 35 Wing
No. 11 Squadron IAF	Vadodara Air Force Station	Airbus C295	No. 36 Wing
No. 44 Squadron IAF	Nagpur Air Force Station	Il-76MD	No. 44 Wing
No. 4 Squadron IAF	Uttarlai Air Force Station	MiG-21 Bison	No. 5 FBSU

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

List of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

Rank	Name	From	To
Air Marshal	Jagdish Raj Bhasin	23 July 1980[3]	30 June 1983
	Chandra Kant Viswanath Gole	1 July 1983[3]	31 October 1984
	Subramaniam Raghavendran	1 November 1984[3]	6 January 1986
	Prem Pal Singh	8 January 1986[3]	28 February 1987
	Surendra Kumar Mehra	1 March 1987[3]	31 July 1988
	Partha Kumar Dey	1 August 1988[3]	31 March 1992
	Brijesh Dhar Jayal	1 April 1992[3]	30 September 1993
	Satish Kumar Sareen	6 October 1993[3]	3 June 1994
	Kodendera Cariappa Cariappa	6 June 1994[3]	31 January 1996
	Sharadkumar Ramakrishna Deshpande	1 February 1996[3]	30 November 1997
	Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy	1 December 1997[3]	31 October 1999
	Vinod Kumar Bhatia	1 November 1997[3]	31 July 2001
	Michael McMahon	1 August 2001[3]	31 January 2003
	Shashindra Pal Tyagi	1 February 2003[3]	14 November 2003
	Adi Rustomji Ghandhi	17 November 2003[3]	31 June 2004
	Satish Kumar Jain	12 July 2004[3]	28 February 2006
	Pramod Kumar Mehra	1 March 2006[3]	30 April 2007
	Kanwar Dalinderjit Singh	1 May 2007[3]	30 September 2009
	Paramjit Singh Bhangu	1 October 2009[3]	31 December 2010
	Anjan Kumar Gogoi	1 January 2011[3]	28 February 2013
	Daljit Singh	1 March 2013[3]	31 October 2014
	Birender Singh Dhanoa	1 November 2014[3]	31 May 2015
	Ravinder Kumar Dhir	1 June 2015[3]	30 September 2018
	Harjit Singh Arora	1 October 2018[3]	30 September 2019
	Surendra Kumar Ghotia	1 October 2019[3]	30 April 2021
	Sandeep Singh	1 May 2021[3]	30 September 2021
	Vikram Singh	1 October 2021[3]	30 April 2023
	Narmdeshwar Tiwari	1 May 2023	30 April 2025
	Nagesh Kapoor	1 May 2025	Incumbent