How Does The Indian Air Force Operate?

As we all know that every organisation has its own structure and administration which is distributed among various departments due to which it functions properly. And Indian air force being the fourth most powerful air force in the world similarly has its own set of divisions. Today let’s have a look at the structure of the Indian air force.

Commands

Firstly, the Indian Air force is divided into five operational and two functional commands. Each of these commands is headed by an Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief with the rank of Air Marshal. The IAF commands are as follows

• Central Air command: Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
• Eastern Air command: Shillong, Meghalaya
• Southern Air command: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
• South Western Air command: Gandhinagar, Gujarat
• Western Air command: New Delhi
• Training command: Bangalore, Karnataka
• Maintainance command: Nagpur, Maharashtra

Stations

Now each operational command also consists of nine to sixteen stations. And most importantly, each of the stations is commanded by an Air commodore. And furthermore, each station is assigned to one wing and one or two squadrons.

Wings

It generally consists of two or three IAF squadrons and helicopter units, and forward base support units also. There are about 47 wings in IAF and they are commanded by Air commodore.

Squadrons and units

A fighter squadron consists of 18 aircraft and besides that, all fighter squadrons are headed by a commanding officer with the rank of wing commander. Apart from that, some transport squadrons and helicopter units are also commanded by a group captain.

Flights

Flights are sub-divisions of squadrons, commanded by a squadron leader. And an officer with the rank of group captain also commands a flight.

Sections

The smallest unit of the IAF is a section. And finally, each section has three aircraft and are also headed by a flight lieutenant.

So this was the basic structure of the Indian air force.

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