Southern Air Command (India)

The Southern Air Command (SAC) of the Indian Air Force (IAF) is headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram, which is on the southwestern side of India. This is one among the seven commands of IAF. This command was started on 19 July 1984 and is relatively new among the other commands. The conflicts in Sri Lanka and the need for establishing a strong base over the Indian Ocean resulted to the formation of this new command. The SAC was inaugurated by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.^[1]

Southern Air Command
Emblem of the Southern Air Command
Founded	19 July 1984
Country	India
Allegiance	India
Branch	Indian Air Force
Type	Operational Air Command
Headquarters	Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Motto(s)	Sanskrit: Antariksham Prashasmahe We Command the space
Commanders
Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief	Air Marshal Manish Khanna, AVSM, VM

From 1984 to 1999, the command grew from 5 lodger units to 17 lodger units under its jurisdiction. Air-sea rescue in the Indian Ocean may be among the command's tasks.

Organization

Squadrons include:

Squadron	Base	Equipment	Notes
No. 121 Helicopter Flight, IAF	Car Nicobar Air Force Station	Mi-17	No. 37 Wing
No. 122 Helicopter Flight, IAF	Car Nicobar Air Force Station	Mi-17 V5	No. 37 Wing
No. 33 Squadron IAF	Sulur Air Force Station	Antonov An-32	No. 43 Wing
No. 109 Helicopter Unit, IAF	Sulur Air Force Station	Mi-17 V5	No. 43 Wing
No. 45 Squadron IAF[2]	Sulur Air Force Station	HAL Tejas	No. 43 Wing
No. 222 Squadron IAF[3]	Thanjavur Air Force Station	Sukhoi Su-30 MKI[4]	No. 47 Wing[5]

Technical area of the air command in Shangumukham near the Trivandrum International Airport

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

List of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

Rank	Name	From	To
Air Marshal	Joseph Desa	18 June 1984[6]	30 November 1986
	Rajagopal Sriramulu Naidu	1 January 1986[6]	30 September 1987
	Gandharva Sen	21 December 1987[6]	31 October 1989
	Suresh Chand	7 November 1989[6]	31 March 1991
	Sukh Dev Mohan	13 May 1991[6]	30 April 1992
	Ravinder Nath Bharadwaj	1 May 1992[6]	31 July 1993
	Sherwin Derek Leslie Tully	3 September 1993[6]	31 March 1995
	Bharat Kumar	1 May 1995[6]	30 April 1997
	Krishnan Narayan Nair	1 May 1997[6]	2 June 1999
	Darshan Singh Basra	15 January 1999[6]	31 August 2000
	Manjit Singh Sekhon	1 September 2000[6]	12 March 2002
	Tej Mohan Asthana	18 March 2002[6]	31 December 2002
	Anil Kumar Trikha	1 January 2003[6]	31 December 2003
	Sunil Kumar Malik	2 January 2004[6]	30 September 2004
	Sharad Yeshwant Savur	1 August 2004[6]	31 August 2006
	Padamjit Singh Ahluwalia	1 September 2006[6]	31 January 2007
	Yashwant Rao Rane	1 February 2007[6]	31 March 2008
	Suresh Chandra Mukul	1 April 2008[6]	30 September 2008
	Sadasivan Radhakrishnan	1 October 2008[6]	31 August 2009
	Sumit Mukerji	1 September 2009[6]	30 June 2011
	Satish Pal Singh	1 July 2011[6]	31 July 2012
	Rakesh Kumar Jolly	1 August 2012[6]	31 December 2013
	Arun Purushottam Garud	1 January 2014[6]	31 May 2015
	Jasbir Walia	1 June 2015[6]	31 July 2016
	Sunderraman Neelakantan	1 August 2016	1 March 2017
	Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria	1 March 2017	1 August 2018
	Balakrishnan Suresh	1 August 2018	30 October 2019
	Amit Tiwari	1 November 2019	31 January 2021
	Manavendra Singh	1 February 2021	25 September 2021
	Jonnalagedda Chalapati	4 October 2021	31 March 2023
	Balakrishnan Manikantan	1 May 2023	30 April 2025
	Manish Khanna	1 June 2025	Incumbent