Ashutosh Dixit, a Test Pilot With More Than 3,500 Flying Hours, Became India's 29th Air Chief on 31 October 2026 and Put the Tejas, the AMCA and Indian Weapons First

Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit took charge as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff, the head of the Indian Air Force (IAF), on 31 October 2026. The Ministry of Defence describes him as a fighter pilot, a qualified flying instructor and an experimental test pilot, the kind who flies new and modified aircraft to prove they work, with more than 3,500 flying hours. On 1 November he gave his first address as chief and named the Tejas Mk1A, the Tejas Mk2, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and Indian-made sensors and weapons as the Air Force’s highest priorities.

He succeeds Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, who retired the same day. The Press Information Bureau gives Singh’s service as 42 years, while India Sentinels and Outlook’s text say 43, so the safe summary is more than four decades. The government announced Dixit’s appointment on 6 October. Dixit had held the post of Vice Chief of the Air Staff since July 2026.

A career spent flying, testing and upgrading

Dixit was born on 9 December 1966 and was commissioned into the IAF’s fighter stream on 6 December 1986, after the National Defence Academy. The Ministry’s release says he later graduated from the Defence Services Command and Staff College in Bangladesh and the National Defence College in New Delhi. His flying log covers the Mirage-2000, several MiG variants, the Jaguar and several transport aircraft, and India Sentinels adds the Kiran, Hawk, IL-78 and Tejas.

The Ministry credits him with a hand in modernisation work. Its release says he was instrumental in finalising the Jaguar and MiG-27 upgrade projects and in completing the Initial and Final Operational Clearance activities of the Tejas Mk1, the first production version of the Tejas.

Business Today and Indian Masterminds fill in how. He was a test pilot and later commanding officer of the Flight Test Squadron at the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment in Bengaluru, where he worked on avionics upgrades for the Jaguar and MiG-27. Indian Masterminds adds that he served as directing staff at the Air Force Test Pilots School. As Principal Director of Air Staff Requirements, both outlets say, he helped plan and run the trials for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft programme.

Outlook quotes the IAF’s own farewell note describing his predecessor as a fighter pilot and experimental test pilot too, so the Air Force has now had two such chiefs in succession.

From a Mirage squadron to the joint staff

His command record, as the Ministry lists it, starts with a Mirage-2000 squadron. ANI, citing the Ministry, and Business Today name it as No. 9 Squadron, which he re-equipped with the Mirage-2000. Next, as commander, he took a forward base support unit in the Western sector and then Air Force Station Bidar, which the release calls a premier fighter training base.

Staff and senior posts followed. He was Air Defence Commander at Southern Air Command, Senior Air Staff Officer at South Western Air Command, and Assistant Chief of the Air Staff for projects and for plans at Air Headquarters. As Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, which India Sentinels dates from 15 May 2023, he steered capability development and procurement. Command of Central Air Command followed, then the post of Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, a joint-staff post at Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff. How such posts fit into the chain of command is set out in a separate article.

India Sentinels and Business Today both record that he took part in Operation Safed Sagar, the Air Force’s part in the 1999 Kargil war, as well as Operation Rakshak. His decorations are the Vayu Sena Medal (2006), Vishisht Seva Medal (2011), Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (2023) and Param Vishisht Seva Medal (2026).

VAYU, four letters and four jobs

The ceremonies began on Sunday 1 November with a wreath at the National War Memorial in New Delhi and a guard of honour at Air Force Station New Delhi, according to Akashvani News. In the address, ANI’s text has him say: “Our priorities shall be summed up in one word: VAYU.” Vayu is the Hindi word for air.

The V is for vigilance and readiness. Every squadron, radar and air defence unit, he said, must be able to respond at a moment’s notice. Akashvani and some other reports render the first pillar as vigilance, victory and readiness.

Self-reliance, Aatmanirbharta, takes the A. In his words, the force “will fight with Indian solutions” and hold them in numbers that meet the demands of sustained operations. “Our responsibility is to fight and win, but most importantly it is to deter conflict through credible Air Power.”

For Y he chose Yukti, meaning ingenuity, and the list he gave is networked command and control that uses artificial intelligence, layered counter-drone defence, responsive maintenance, force protection, resilience, and near-space as an operational domain.

The final U is unity of effort, which he tied to the government’s JAI vision of Jointness, Aatmanirbharta and Innovation. The Air Force, he said, would plan and fight as one with the Army, the Navy and national agencies. The welfare, training and morale of air warriors, Agniveervayu recruits, civilian staff, veterans and Veer Naris are, he said, his personal priority.

He credited his predecessor, under whom, he said, the Air Force showed in Operation Sindoor what precise and decisive air power can do, and thanked him for handing over a force in a high state of readiness. Drones, long-range precision weapons, space, cyber, artificial intelligence and the electromagnetic spectrum, he said, are reshaping war.

Why the Tejas and the AMCA head the list

The Tejas is the first jet on that list for a practical reason. The Tribune reports 180 Tejas Mk1A fighters on order from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The Ministry’s release of 25 September 2025 covers a second contract, for 97 aircraft (68 single-seat fighters and 29 twin-seat trainers) for over Rs 62,370 crore excluding taxes, with deliveries to begin in 2027 to 2028 and run over six years. The full Tejas record is on this site.

Dixit spoke about the programme as Vice Chief at Jodhpur on 22 September 2026. He told reporters the early delay was on the engine side and that “We could not get enough engines. Now we have received the engines and installed them on the aircraft.” Only two or three points on integrating missiles with the radar were left to prove, he said, and the road to induction should be clear within a month or two. The Tribune of 23 September reported that no Mk1A had yet been handed over, and HAL’s chairman had told ANI days earlier that he would not commit to a timeline because the software still needed changes. The reports opened for this article give no later handover date.

India Sentinels describes the AMCA as India’s planned fifth-generation stealth fighter, and records that the Mk1A, Mk2 and AMCA all saw significant forward movement while Dixit was Deputy Chief of the Air Staff.

The squadron count he inherits

The IAF’s sanctioned strength is 42 fighter squadrons. The Tribune and BW Businessworld put the number flying now at 29, India Sentinels at around 30, and it cites a parliamentary committee report of 17 December 2024 that counted 31. Dixit’s own words on 1 November were: “Restoring our combat strength towards the sanctioned level will also be my foremost task.”