Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired on Saturday after 42 years of service, said here that the force is prepared to meet any challenge as he thanked the Government for “providing a free hand” and implementing the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme. He said infiltration bids in Jammu & Kashmir had increased during the year and the number of terrorists killed was nearly double the previous year.
Stressing that the Army focused on operational preparedness during his tenure, Suhag said when he had taken over he had asserted the response of the Army to any action against our interest would be immediate, adequate and intense. “Indian Army has done that in the last two-and-a-half years,” he said.
General Bipin Rawat, an infantry officer from Gorkha Rifles, later took over as the 27th chief of the 1.3 million strong from Suhag. Air Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa also took charge as the 25th Air Force Chief replacing Arup Raha.
Commissioned into the Army in 1978, Rawat has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion along the line of Actual Control (lAC)facing China, a Rashtriya Rifles sector and an infantry division in the Kashmir valley, a corps in the Eastern threatre and Southern Command.
As regards the new IAF chief, Dhanoa, who was elevated from the post of Vice Chief, had developed the country’s aerial targeting philosophy against potential adversaries and transformed the concept of air operations of the air force into contemporary war fighting practices.
He has mainly flown Kiran and MiG-21 aircraft though he has the experience of flying the entire spectrum of fighter aircraft from Jaguar to state-of-the-art MiG-29 and Su-30 MKI. As the commanding officer of a frontline ground attack fighter squadron, Dhanoa led the IAF punch during the “limited War” against Pakistan to drive the enemy out of their “dug in” defences in the icy heights of Kargil region in 1999.
During the conflict, under his leadership and supervision, the squadron devised unique and innovative methods of bombing at night at altitudes never before attempted in the history of air warfare, the IAF said. His squadron emerged as the most decorated IAF unit of Kargil War. The new IAF chief also holds the highest flying instructional category in the IAF and was handpicked to establish the “IAF Training Team” abroad.