Air Marshal Arup Raha, an ace fighter pilot, will be the new IAF chief after incumbent Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne retires on December 31. At present, Raha is the Vice Chief and he will soon serve his tenure of three years as the Chief of Air Staff.
Following the norm of announcing the name of the next Chief, the Defence Ministry formally issued a communiqué on Tuesday about Raha’s appointment. Born on December 26, 1954, he was commissioned into the fighter stream of IAF on December 14, 1974 after graduating from the National Defence Academy (NDA) with the President’s Gold Medal. He has logged more than 3,400 hours on various fighter jets.
During his over 39 years of career, he has held various command, staff and instructional appointments and also served as Air Attache at the Embassy of India, Ukraine. Besides various technical courses, Air Marshal Raha has done National Defence College, Strategic Nuclear Orientation Course and Junior Commanders’ Course. He has commanded Central Air Command and Western Air Command. He also served as Directing Staff at Flying Instructors School, Tambaram (Tamil Nadu) as well as at the Gwalior-based Tactics and Combat Development Establishment of the IAF.