Air Chief-designate Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit Meets Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

Air Chief-designate Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit on Wednesday met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh after being selected to become the next Chief of the Air Staff. Singh congratulated Dixit on his appointment and conveyed his best wishes for his new responsibility. The Centre has appointed Air Marshal Dixit, who is currently serving as Vice Chief of the Air Staff, as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff. He will assume the rank of Air Chief Marshal and take charge from the afternoon of October 31.

Dixit will succeed the incumbent Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, who is scheduled to retire from service on October 31. His appointment comes at a time when the Indian Air Force is placing increasing emphasis on strengthening indigenous defence capabilities and expanding the use of locally developed platforms.

During his career, Air Marshal Dixit has been closely associated with efforts to promote indigenous aircraft programmes, including the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, supporting the government's broader Aatmanirbhar Bharat push in defence production. Commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force on December 6, 1986, Dixit is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, the Defence Staff Service College in Bangladesh and the National Defence College. He has accumulated more than 3,500 hours of flying experience.

Over the course of his career, Dixit has held several important operational and staff positions. As a commanding officer, he re-equipped No. 9 Squadron with Mirage-2000 fighter aircraft and later led a frontline fighter base in the Western Sector as well as a major fighter training establishment in the Southern Sector.

He subsequently served as Air Defence Commander of Southern Air Command and held key appointments at Air Headquarters, including Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Projects) and Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Plans) at Vayu Bhawan. In recognition of his distinguished service, Dixit has received several military honours, including the Vayu Sena Medal in 2006, Vishisht Seva Medal in 2011, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2023 and Param Vishisht Seva Medal in 2026.

Disclaimer: This image is taken from ANI.