The Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS) is a senior appointment in the Indian Air Force. The DCAS is a Principal Staff Officer (PSO) to the Chief of the Air Staff at Air Force Headquarters in New Delhi. The office is held by a three star officer in the rank of Air Marshal.
History At the time of independence of India on 15 August 1947, Air Commodore Subroto Mukerjee was appointed Deputy Air Commander, Royal Indian Air Force, in addition to being Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) at the newly-formed Air HQ. On 15 November the same year, he was promoted to the acting rank of Air Vice Marshal.
In 1949, the RIAF was reorganised and the post was re-designated Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS). The DCAS continued to be the Deputy Air Commander. On 1 January 1963, the post of Vice Chief of the Air Staff was created and became the second-highest post of the Indian Air Force. In 1968, the post was upgraded to three-star rank Air Marshal.
The DCAS ranks at No. 24 on the Indian order of precedence, along with Lieutenant Generals of the Indian Army and Vice Admirals of the Indian Navy. The DCAS is in the HAG+ pay scale (pay level 16), and draws salary depending on the years in service. However, since they should not draw equivalent or more than the next higher level, the remuneration is capped at ₹224,000.
Appointees
S.No. Rank Name Assumed office Left office NotesDeputy Air Commander, Royal Indian Air Force1Air Vice Marshal Subroto Mukerjee**15 August 194731 January 1949Deputy Chief of the Air StaffAir Vice MarshalSubroto Mukerjee**1 February 194916 December 19522Aspy Merwan Engineer**17 December 195230 April 19583Diwan Atma Ram Nanda1 May 1958 31 December 19624Arjan Singh**1 January 19634 August 19635Ramaswamy Rajaram5 August 196330 September 19646Minoo Merwan Engineer1 October 196428 February 19687Air Marshal1 March 19684 August 19698Om Prakash Mehra**7 August 196928 February 19719Hirendra Nath Chatterjee30 March 197131 March 197210Yeshwant Vinayak Malse3 May 197231 March 197311Hari Chand Dewan1 April 197318 October 197312Sarosh Jehangir Dastur12 November 197327 June 197413Devaiah Subia27 June 197431 March 197714Jafar Zaheer20 May 197723 August 197815Lal Singh Grewal24 August 197831 January 198016Malcolm Wollen16 April 19802 January 198117Chandra Kant Viswanath Gole15 January 198130 June 198318Kapil Dev Chadha8 July 198331 October 198419Johney William Greene1 January 198531 May 198620Surinder Mehra**1 June 198628 February 198721Prithi Singh1 March 198731 July 198822Rajendra Kumar Dhawan1 August 19881 April 199023Brijesh Dhar Jayal2 April 19906 October 199124Trilochan Singh Brar7 October 199130 April 199325Prabhat Kumar Varma1 May 199328 February 199426Sharadkumar Ramakrishna Deshpande1 March 199431 January 199627Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy**1 February 199623 July 199628Man Mohan Singh Vasudeva24 July 199631 August 199729Syed Shahid Hussain Naqvi1 September 199730 September 199930Satish Govind Inamdar1 October 199930 November 200031Tej Mohan Asthana1 December 200017 March 200232Raghu Rajan5 June 200231 March 200433Jaspal Singh Gujral1 April 200430 April 200534Arvind Kumar Nagalia24 August 200528 February 200735Norman Anil Kumar Browne**1 March 200731 May 200936Nirdosh Vatsyayan Tyagi1 June 200931 January 201137Ravi Kant Sharma1 February 201130 November 201238Subramanyam Sukumar1 December 201228 February 201439Sridharan Panicker Radha Krishnan Nair1 March 201430 April 201440Shyam Bihari Prasad Sinha1 May 201431 December 201541Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria**1 January 201628 February 201742Raghunath Nambiar1 March 201730 September 201843Vivek Ram Chaudhari**1 October 201830 September 201944Sandeep Singh1 October 201930 April 202145Suraj Kumar Jha1 May 202131 July 202146Narmdeshwar Tiwari1 October 202130 April 202347Ashutosh Dixit15 May 202331 August 202448Tejinder Singh1 September 202430 April 202549Awadhesh Kumar Bharti1 June 202531 July 202650Tejpal Singh1 August 2026Present ** Went on to become Chief of the Air Staff
See also Chief of the Air Staff Vice Chief of the Air Staff Deputy Chief of the Army Staff Deputy Chief of the Navy Staff
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