Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit appointed new Chief of Air Force, replacing Amar Preet Singh

Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit has been appointed the new Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF), replacing Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh. He has a service career of nearly four decades. He was commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF on December 6, 1986.

According to ANI, Air Marshal Dixit has flown a wide range of aircraft. These include the Mirage-2000, variants of the MiG, HPT-32, An-32, Avro, Kiran, Jaguar, IL-78, Hawk and Tejas.

He is an Experimental Test Pilot and a Qualified Flying Instructor. He has logged more than 3,500 hours of flying. Over his career, the officer has been actively involved in several operations and exercises, ANI reported. These include Op Safed Sagar, Op Rakshak, Cope India and Op Sindoor.

He is widely known for pushing the indigenous LCA Tejas and other indigenous aircraft projects in the force. He is expected to further promote the government's Aatmanirbharta initiative, the agency reported.

He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, the Defence Services Staff College in Bangladesh and the National Defence College.

(With inputs from ANI)