What you must know about the Indian Air Force

Hello aspirants,

Today I am writing about some of the important things to know about Indian air force for all aspirants.

Indian Air force is considered as the defender of the sky in the Indian armed forces. It is responsible to guard the airspace and take part in aerial combat, if and when required. Apart from that IAF has also taken part in several humanitarian and peacekeeping missions. If your desire is to get the blue uniform, you must know a few things about this organization, also you can take your knowledge to a higher level about the same by reading up my blogs every day.

Some must know things about IAF.

1. The motto of the Indian air force is ‘Touch the sky with glory’ or ‘नभः स्पृशं दीप्तम्’ in Sanskrit.

2. Air force day is celebrated on 8th October in India, to rejoice the foundation day of IAF, which was first an auxiliary force, founded in 1932 as Royal air force under British rule.

3. The Headquarter is in New Delhi.

4. The current chief of the air staff is Air chief marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa.

5. IAF operates 5 operational and 2 functional commands which are as follows.

• Central Air command: HQ at Allahabad, UP
• Eastern Air command: HQ at Shillong, Meghalaya
• Southern Air command: HQ at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
• South western Air command: HQ at Gandhinagar, Gujarat
• Western Air command: HQ at New Delhi
• Training command: HQ at Banglore, Karnataka
• Maintenance command: HQ at Nagpur, Maharastra

Now the Officer Ranks in the IAF

• Marshal Of the Indian Air force
• Air chief marshal
• Air marshal
• Air vice marshal
• Air commodore
• Group captain
• Wing commander
• Squadron leader
• Flight lieutenant
• Flying officer

Organizational Structure of the IAF.

1. Commands: The IAF divides into 5 operational and 2 functional commands. Each Command is headed by Air Officer Commanding in chief with the rank of the Air marshal. The purpose of an operational command is to conduct military operations using aircraft within its area of responsibility, whereas the responsibility of functional commands is to maintain combat readiness.

2. Wings: A wing is a formation between a command and a Squadron. It generally consists of two or three IAF squadrons and helicopter units along with the forward base support unit (FBSU), FBSUs do not have or host any squadrons or helicopter unit but it is work as transit airbase for routine operations. In times of war, they can become fully fledged airbase playing host to various squadrons. In all, about 47 Wings and 19 FBSUs make the IAF. Wings are typically commanded by the rank of Group captain.

3. Squadrons: Squadrons are the field units or the formations attached to static locations. Thus, A flying squadron is a sub unit of an air force station which carries out the primary task of IAF. All fighter squadrons are headed by a commanding officer with the rank of Wing commander. Some transport squadrons or helicopter units are headed by the commanding officer with rank of Group captain.

4. Flights: Flights are subdivisions of Squadrons and headed by the commanding officer with the rank of Squadron leader. Within this formation, IAF has several service branches for day to day operations such as Flying branch for flying, Technical branch for Engineer, Ground duty branch for logistic, Administrative, Accounts, Education, Medical, Dental and meteorological.

I hope this information helps you to increase knowledge about the Indian air force.

Thanks you.