Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, an accomplished fighter pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience, on Monday assumed charge as new chief of the Indian Air Force, succeeding incumbent Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari who superannuated.  Air Chief Marshal Singh was serving as Vice Chief of the Air Force in his previous assignment.

Born on October 27, 1964, Air Chief Marshal Singh was commissioned into the fighter pilot stream of the Indian Air Force in December 1984.

In his long and distinguished service spanning nearly 40 years, he has served in a variety of command, staff, instructional and foreign appointments.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College and National Defence College, the air officer is a qualified flying instructor and an experimental test pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience on a variety of fixed and rotary wing aircraft.  Air Chief Marshal Singh has commanded an operational fighter squadron and a frontline air base.

As a test pilot, he led the MiG-29 upgrade project management team at Moscow.  He was also the project director (flight test) at National Flight Test Centre and was tasked with flight testing of the Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas.

The officer has held important staff appointments of Air Defence Commander at South Western Air Command and Senior Air Staff Officer at Eastern Air Command.

Prior to assuming the charge of Vice Chief of the Air Staff in February last year, he was the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command.