Training Command (India)

Training Command is the Indian Air Force's command responsible for flying and ground training.

Air Training Command
Emblem of the Training Air Command
Founded	22 July 1949
Country	India
Branch	Indian Air Force
Type	Operational Air Command
Role	Flying and ground training.
Headquarters	Bangalore, Karnataka
Motto(s)	Sanskrit: Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya "From darkness, lead us unto Light"
Commanders
Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief	Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor, AVSM, VM

In the 1930s, the approaching threat and later advent of World War II and the leaning of Japan towards the Axis powers, the latter was considered as a potential enemy. Therefore, need was felt to make IAF a self-supporting force for the South Eastern Theatre of war. This led to the rapid expansion of the IAF. A target was fixed of 10 IAF Squadrons. With this expansion, the requirement of pilots and technical personnel increased. For the training of technical personnel, a technical training school was set up at Ambala in 1940.

In a 1949 reorganisation of the Indian Air Force, while frontline units were put under the Operations Command, all the training institutions were placed under the jurisdiction of the Training Command.^[1]

Among Training Command's units is the Navigation Training School at Begumpet Air Force Station, Hyderabad. It flies the BAe HS. 748,^[2] the Basic Flying Training School and the Air Force Administrative College. The Hawk Operational Training Squadron and Weapon System Operators' School are located at Bidar Air Force Station which flows the Hawk Mk 132 trainer aircraft.

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

List of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

Rank	Name	From	To
Air commodore	Ravinder Hari Darshan Singh	22 July 1949[3]	3 December 1952
	Surendra Nath Goyal	17 December 1952[3]	10 January 1956
	Pratap Chandra Lal	11 January 1956[3]	20 November 1957
	Kanwar Jaswant Singh	27 May 1958[3]	22 March 1959
	Ranjan Dutt	23 March 1959[3]	12 April 1960
Air Vice Marshal		13 April 1960[3]	29 December 1960
	Surendra Nath Goyal	1 April 1961[3]	6 August 1966
	Teja Singh Virk	10 August 1966[3]	22 August 1969
	Victor Srihari	30 August 1969[3]	3 March 1972
	Anand Ramdas Pandit	4 March 1972[3]	8 April 1973
	Gian Dev Sharma	9 April 1973[3]	29 June 1947
	George Kanishtkumar John	1 July 1974[3]	22 March 1976
Air Marshal	Maurice Barker	22 April 1976[3]	22 September 1976
	Randhir Singh	23 October 1976[3]	29 April 1978
	Hemant Ramkrishna Chitnis	11 May 1978[3]	19 February 1979
	George Kanishtkumar John	20 February 1979[3]	30 September 1979
	Balwant Wickram Chauhan	29 October 1979[3]	19 September 1981
	Erasseri Pathayapurayil Radhakrishnan Nair	20 October 1981[3]	28 February 1985
	Vir Narain	1 March 1985[3]	30 November 1987
	Jagdish Kumar Seth	1 December 1987[3]	30 September 1991
	Rajendra Kumar Dhawan	7 October 1991[3]	31 May 1993
	Verinder Puri	3 September 1993[3]	31 May 1995
	Krishna Bihari Singh	1 July 1995[3]	31 December 1997
	Jagbir Singh Rai	1 January 1998[3]	31 March 2001
	Teshter Jall Master	1 April 2001[3]	31 December 2002
	Bijoy Krishna Pandey	3 February 2003[3]	31 May 2004
	Subhash Bhojwani	12 July 2004[3]	31 January 2006
	Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale	1 March 2006[3]	31 October 2006
	Gurnam Singh Choudhary	1 November 2006[3]	30 April 2008
	Venkataraman Ramamurthy Iyer	1 May 2008[3]	30 November 2010
	Dhiraj Kukreja	1 December 2010[3]	29 February 2012
	Rajinder Singh	1 March 2012[3]	30 June 2013
	Paramjit Singh Gill	1 July 2013[3]	30 June 2014
	Ramesh Rai	1 July 2014[3]	31 July 2015
	Sridharan Panicker Radha Krishnan Nair	1 September 2015[3]	31 July 2018
	Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria	1 August 2018[3]	30 April 2019
	Surendra Kumar Ghotia	1 May 2019[3]	30 September 2019
	Arvindra Singh Butola	1 October 2019[3]	30 September 2020
	Rajiv Dayal Mathur	1 October 2020[3]	31 July 2021[4]
	Manavendra Singh	25 September 2021[3]	31 December 2022
	Radhakrishnan Radhish	1 January 2023[5]	30 April 2024
	Nagesh Kapoor	1 May 2024	Incumbent

See also

• Maintenance Command