South Western Air Command, Indian Air Force
Emblem of the South Western Air Command
Founded23 July 1980
CountryIndia
BranchIndian Air Force
TypeOperational Air Command
RoleAir Defence, Maritime strike role.
HeadquartersGandhinagar
Motto(s)Sanskrit: Jai Shree Varte Veeramh
Victory embraces the brave
EngagementsAtlantique incident, Bhuj earthquake relief, 2001, Gujarat flood relief, 2005
Commanders
Air Officer Commanding-in-ChiefAir Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari, AVSM, VM[1]

The South Western Air Command is one of the five operational commands of the Indian Air Force. It was raised in Jodhpur in July 1980 from the No.1 Operations Group of the Western Air Command. Its operations sector includes most of Rajasthan, through Gujarat and Saurashtra, as far south as Kutch and Pune. The SWAC moved to its current headquarters in Gandhinagar in May 1998, and incorporates the Indian airbases of Bhuj, Jaisalmer, Phalodi, Naliya, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Uttarlai/Barmer and Pune. It controls air operations in the south western air sector, which includes most of Rajasthan, and south through Gujarat to Saurashtra, and Kutch to Pune. It also operates the forward airbases at Vadodara, Nal and Suratgarh. The SWAC's role has historically been largely of air defence, although it has been reported to have incorporated a strike profile.

Organisation

Squadrons include:

SquadronBaseEquipmentNotes
No. 20 Squadron IAF Lohegaon Air Force Station Su-30MKI No. 2 Wing
No. 30 Squadron IAF Lohegaon Air Force Station Su-30MKI No. 2 Wing
No. 15 Squadron IAF Bhuj Air Force Station Su-30 MKI No. 27 Wing
No. 31 Squadron IAF Jodhpur Air Force Station Su-30 MKI No.32 Wing
No. 107 Helicopter Unit, IAF Jodhpur Air Force Station Mi-8 No. 32 Wing
No. 116 Helicopter Unit, IAF Jodhpur Air Force Station HAL Chetak No. 32 Wing
No. 119 Helicopter Unit, IAF Jodhpur Air Force Station Mi-8 No. 32 Wing
No. 143 Helicopter Unit, IAF Jodhpur Air Force Station HAL Prachand
No. 6 Squadron IAF Jamnagar Air Force Station JaguarIS/IM/IB No. 33 Wing
No. 28 Squadron IAF Jamnagar Air Force Station Mig 29 No.33 Wing
No. 141 SSS Flight, IAF Jamnagar Air Force Station HAL Chetak No. 33 Wing IAF
No. 23 Squadron IAF Suratgarh Air Force Station Mig-21 No. 35 Wing IAF
No. 104 Helicopter Squadron, IAF Suratgarh Air Force Station Mi-35 No. 35 Wing
No. 11 Squadron IAF Vadodara Air Force Station Airbus C295 No. 36 Wing
No. 44 Squadron IAF Nagpur Air Force Station Il-76MD No. 44 Wing
No. 4 Squadron IAF Uttarlai Air Force Station MiG-21 Bison No. 5 FBSU

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

List of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief
Rank Name From To
Air Marshal Jagdish Raj Bhasin 23 July 1980[2] 30 June 1983
Chandra Kant Viswanath Gole 1 July 1983[2] 31 October 1984
Subramaniam Raghavendran 1 November 1984[2] 6 January 1986
Prem Pal Singh 8 January 1986[2] 28 February 1987
Surendra Kumar Mehra 1 March 1987[2] 31 July 1988
Partha Kumar Dey 1 August 1988[2] 31 March 1992
Brijesh Dhar Jayal 1 April 1992[2] 30 September 1993
Satish Kumar Sareen 6 October 1993[2] 3 June 1994
Kodendera Cariappa Cariappa 6 June 1994[2] 31 January 1996
Sharadkumar Ramakrishna Deshpande 1 February 1996[2] 30 November 1997
Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy 1 December 1997[2] 31 October 1999
Vinod Kumar Bhatia 1 November 1997[2] 31 July 2001
Michael McMahon 1 August 2001[2] 31 January 2003
Shashindra Pal Tyagi 1 February 2003[2] 14 November 2003
Adi Rustomji Ghandhi 17 November 2003[2] 31 June 2004
Satish Kumar Jain 12 July 2004[2] 28 February 2006
Pramod Kumar Mehra 1 March 2006[2] 30 April 2007
Kanwar Dalinderjit Singh 1 May 2007[2] 30 September 2009
Paramjit Singh Bhangu 1 October 2009[2] 31 December 2010
Anjan Gogoi 1 January 2011[2] 28 February 2013
Daljit Singh 1 March 2013[2] 31 October 2014
Birender Singh Dhanoa 1 November 2014[2] 31 May 2015
Ravinder Kumar Dhir 1 June 2015[2] 30 September 2018
Harjit Singh Arora 1 October 2018[2] 30 September 2019
Surendra Kumar Ghotia 1 October 2019[2] 30 April 2021
Sandeep Singh 1 May 2021[2] 30 September 2021
Vikram Singh 1 October 2021[2] 30 April 2023
Narmdeshwar Tiwari 1 May 2023 Incumbent

References

  1. ↑ @SWAC_IAF (1 May 2023). "Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari took over as AOC-in-C #SWAC on 01 May 23" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 "South Western Air Command - BRF". Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
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