Jump to content

Main menu Navigation ●Main page ●Contents ●Current events ●Random article ●About Wikipedia ●Contact us ●Donate Contribute ●Help ●Learn to edit ●Community portal ●Recent changes ●Upload file

●Create account ●Log in ●Create account ● Log in Pages for logged out editors learn more ●Contributions ●Talk

(Top) 1 Organization 2 Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief 3 References 4 External links

Southern Air Command (India)

Add links ●Article ●Talk ●Read ●Edit ●View history Tools Actions ●Read ●Edit ●View history General ●What links here ●Related changes ●Upload file ●Special pages ●Permanent link ●Page information ●Cite this page ●Get shortened URL ●Download QR code ●Wikidata item Print/export ●Download as PDF ●Printable version Appearance From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Southern Air Command
Emblem of the Southern Air Command
Founded	19 July 1984
Country	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 Balakrishnan Manikantan, AVSM,VM

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]

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[edit]

Squadrons include:

Squadron	Base	Equipment	Notes
No. 121 Helicopter Flight, IAF	Car Nicobar Air Force Station	Mil Mi-8	No. 37 Wing
No. 122 Helicopter Flight, IAF	Car Nicobar Air Force Station	Mil Mi-8	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. 18 Squadron IAF^[3]	Sulur Air Force Station	HAL Tejas
No. 222 Squadron IAF^[4]	Thanjavur Air Force Station	Sukhoi Su-30 MKI^[5]	No. 47 Wing^[6]

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

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief[edit]

List of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief
Rank	Name	From	To
Air Marshal	Joseph Desa	18 June 1984^[7]	30 November 1986
	Rajagopal Sriramulu Naidu	1 January 1986^[7]	30 September 1987
	Gandharva Sen	21 December 1987^[7]	31 October 1989
	Suresh Chand	7 November 1989^[7]	31 March 1991
	Sukh Dev Mohan	13 May 1991^[7]	30 April 1992
	Ravinder Nath Bharadwaj	1 May 1992^[7]	31 July 1993
	Sherwin Derek Leslie Tully	3 September 1993^[7]	31 March 1995
	Bharat Kumar	1 May 1995^[7]	30 April 1997
	Krishnan Narayan Nair	1 May 1997^[7]	2 June 1999
	Darshan Singh Basra	15 January 1999^[7]	31 August 2000
	Manjit Singh Sekhon	1 September 2000^[7]	12 March 2002
	Tej Mohan Asthana	18 March 2002^[7]	31 December 2002
	Anil Kumar Trikha	1 January 2003^[7]	31 December 2003
	Sunil Kumar Malik	2 January 2004^[7]	30 September 2004
	Sharad Yeshwant Savur	1 August 2004^[7]	31 August 2006
	Padamjit Singh Ahluwalia	1 September 2006^[7]	31 January 2007
	Yashwant Rao Rane	1 February 2007^[7]	31 March 2008
	Suresh Chandra Mukul	1 April 2008^[7]	30 September 2008
	Sadasivan Radhakrishnan	1 October 2008^[7]	31 August 2009
	Sumit Mukerji	1 September 2009^[7]	30 June 2011
	Satish Pal Singh	1 July 2011^[7]	31 July 2012
	Rakesh Kumar Jolly	1 August 2012^[7]	31 December 2013
	Arun Purushottam Garud	1 January 2014^[7]	31 May 2015
	Jasbir Walia	1 June 2015^[7]	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	Incumbent^[8]

References[edit]

^ Indian Air Force, Southern Air Command Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine

^ "Tejas Commences Operations from Kerala's Sulur Air Force Station".

^ Thomas, Wilson (27 May 2020). "IAF operationalises second LCA squadron, inducts first LCA Tejas in FOC standard". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 31 May 2020.

^ "Thanjavur set to host South India's first Sukhoi Squadron". 4 January 2020.

^ "Sulur air base to get one more LCA squadron". The Times of India. 28 February 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2019.

^ "Antony Dedicates to Nation New Air Force Station at Thanjavur".

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x "Southern Air Command - BRF". Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 8 May 2021.

^ "Sainik School, classmates on a high as new Southern Air Command chief takes over on Tuesday". Lokmat Times. 1 May 2023.

External links[edit]

Indian Air Force, Southern Air Command

Indian Armed Forces

Leadership

Organisation

Ministry and
Committees/Councils

Commands

Joint	Integrated Theatre Commands Andaman and Nicobar Command Commander-in-Chief Strategic Forces Command Defence Cyber Agency Defence Space Agency Armed Forces Special Operations Division
Army	Central Command Eastern Command Northern Command Southern Command South Western Command Western Command Army Training Command
Navy	Western Naval Command Eastern Naval Command Southern Naval Command
Air Force	Central Air Command Eastern Air Command Southern Air Command South Western Air Command Western Air Command Training Command Maintenance Command

Other components

Personnel

Operations

Wars	Indo-Pakistani wars 1947–1948 1965 Battle of Asal Uttar Battle of Chawinda 1971 Naval War Air War Battle of Chamb Operation Trident Operation Cactus-Lilly Battle of Longewala Kargil War Sino-Indian War
External Conflicts	Kashmir conflict Korean War Siachen conflict Indo-Pakistani border skirmishes Operation Parakram 2011 2013 2014–2015 2016–2018 2019 Balakot airstrike Congo Crisis Sino-Indian border skirmish 1987 Nathu La and Cho La clashes Doklam standoff 2020 Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War Operation Cactus Evacuation of Indian civilians from Kuwait Piracy off the coast of Somalia Operation Raahat Operation Devi Shakti Indo-Myanmar border strike
Annexations	Operation Polo (Hyderabad) Operation Vijay (Portuguese India - Goa, Damaon, Silvassa & Diu) Junagadh Dadra and Nagar Haveli
Insurgencies	Northeast India Punjab Operation Blue Star Operation Woodrose Kashmir Counter-insurgency operations LOC surgical strike

Equipment

Army

List of equipment of the Indian Army

Navy

Air Force

Documents

Indian Maritime Security Strategy

Other topics

Category
- Army
- Navy
- Air Force

Indian Air Force

Leadership

Components
& commands

Air Force commands

Operational

Functional

Joint

Air bases

Western Air Command	Adampur Ambala Amritsar Awantipora Bathinda Chandigarh Faridabad Gurugram Halwara Hindan Leh Palam Pathankot Sarsawa Siachen Glacier Sirsa Srinagar Udhampur
Eastern Air Command	Agartala Bagdogra Barapani AFS Barrackpore Chabua Dum Dum Hasimara Jorhat Kalaikunda Kumbhigram Mohanbari Mountain Shadow Tawang Tezpur Panagarh
Central Air Command	Agra Bihta Darbhanga Bakshi Ka Talab Bamrauli Bareilly Chakeri Gorakhpur Maharajpur
Southern Air Command	Car Nicobar Coimbatore Madurai Port Blair Tambaram Thanjavur
South Western Air Command	Bhuj Jaisalmer Jamnagar Jodhpur Lohegaon Nal-Bikaner Naliya Phalodi Uttarlai Makarpura
Training Command	Begumpet Bidar Dundigal Hakimpet Yelahanka Belgaum
Maintenance Command	Nagpur Ojhar
Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs)	Along Chinyalisaur Chushul Daulat Beg Oldi Fukche Hayuliang Mechuka Nyoma Pasighat Airport Tawang Thoise Tuting Vijaynagar Walong Ziro