Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit is new chief of Indian Air Force, replacing AP Singh
Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit has been appointed the 29th chief of the Indian Air Force and will take charge on the afternoon of October 31, succeeding Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, who retires that day.
Dixit, currently the Vice Chief, will take over as Air Chief Marshal from Singh, who led the IAF during Operation Sindoor and the May 2025 conflict with Pakistan.
A fighter pilot with nearly four decades of service, Dixit has been closely involved in the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas programme and other Indian aircraft projects.COMMAND AND OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Born on December 9, 1966, Dixit was commissioned into the IAF’s fighter stream on December 6, 1986. An experimental test pilot and qualified flying instructor, he has more than 3,500 flying hours.
He has flown aircraft including the Mirage-2000, MiG variants, Kiran, Jaguar, IL-78, Hawk and Tejas. His operational experience includes Operation Safed Sagar, Operation Rakshak and Operation Sindoor.
Dixit has commanded a Mirage-2000 squadron, a frontline fighter air base in the western sector and a fighter training base in the southern sector.
Before becoming Vice Chief, he headed Central Air Command and later served as Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee.
Dixit has also served as Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, a role which focusses on planning, policy, and operational capabilities.
At Air Headquarters, he held the posts of Principal Director of Air Staff Requirements, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Projects) and Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Plans).
His earlier appointments include Air Defence Commander of Southern Air Command and Senior Air Staff Officer of South Western Air Command.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Dixit completed the Staff Course in Bangladesh and graduated from the National Defence College in New Delhi.
He was awarded the Vayu Sena Medal in 2006, Vishisht Seva Medal in 2011, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2023 and Param Vishisht Seva Medal in 2026.- Ends
Born in Pauri district of Uttarakhand, Manjeet Negi did his early schooling from his village school near Rishikesh and then moved to the town for secondary education. Later, he did his graduation from Hemavati Nandan Bahuguna University. In the year 2000, he did his journalism diploma from Kurukshetra University and started his career with Doordarshan News and started reporting on defence forces from the 2001 Bhuj earthquake. In his career as a defence correspondent, Negi has had the opportunity to report exclusives from world's highest battlefield Siachen Glacier in the north to the Andamans in the South and from the Rann of Kutch in the west to the Arunachal Pradesh border with China in the East.
A regular news-breaker on matters of national security and military affairs, Negi considers the coverage of he Kedarnath tragedy of 2013 as the highest point of his career. During the grave disaster at Kedarnath in June 2013, Manjeet Negi was the first and only TV reporter who walked for 55 Kms on the hilly track to reach the Kedarnath shrine. Spending his first night in the complex amidst several hundred dead bodies around him, Negi says he saw Lord Kedar in his dream. After the Kedarnath disaster, the writer got another opportunity to cover another disaster in the Nepal earthquake in 2015 for the Aaj Tak channel. During the reporting of that disaster for about 10 days, the writer got an opportunity to witness and report the large scale relief and rescue operations undertaken by the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force.
Besides reporting, he is also a skilled mountaineer. With Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and Garhwal Regiment, he has undertaken mountaineering expedition to Satopanth via Gomukh. Accompanying the Mount Manaslu mountaineering expedition of a Garhwal Regiment unit, he also reported about the expedition. He has also scaled the Dronagiri mountain near Joshimath in Uttarakhand. Manjeet Negi has also been honoured with a special award by the Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh for his reporting of Kedarnath disaster. He was awarded the best reporter award for his coverage of Nepal earthquake by India Today Group. At present, the writer has been working as Editor with Aajtak Channel of India Today Group.
Shivani Sharma is a broadcast journalist who specialises in Defence reporting. She happens to be the first Indian journalist to reach the world’s highest motorable top at Umling La and also to cover the southern most strategic tip of the country at Nicobar.
