Commissioned in the fighter stream of IAF on June 1980, ACM Bhadauria had won the coveted ‘Sword of Honour’ for standing first in the overall order of merit

NEW DELHI: Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, the present vice-chief of IAF, will be the next Chief of Air Staff after Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa retires end of this month.

Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, the 25th Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force, is due to retire on September 30. He took over as the Chief of the Air Staff on January 1, 2017.

Commissioned in the fighter stream of IAF on June 1980, ACM Bhadauria had won the coveted ‘Sword of Honour’ for standing first in the overall order of merit. He has over 4,250 hours of experience on 26 types of fighters and transport aircraft.

He has also been an experimental test pilot, a Cat ‘A’ qualified flying instructor and a pilot attack instructor.

Air Marshal Bhadauria, who had earlier flown the Rafale aircraft at French Air Force’s Mont-de-Marsan air base had commented, “Rafale will bring lot of capability into the air force. In terms of technology and weapons, Rafale has brought in, it will again be a game changer for IAF from our planning perspective, point of view of offensive missions and planning the kind of war we want to conduct in the coming years.”