Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British i ...

Amar Preet Singh,

PVSM Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: , ) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of India. It is the highest peacetime medal of the Indian Armed Forces, and is awarded for "dist ...

AVSM Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM, ) is a military award of India given to recognize "distinguished service of an exceptional order" to all ranks of the armed forces. The award is a peacetime equivalent of Uttam Yuddh Seva Medal, which is a Wartime ...

is a serving four star

air officer An air officer is an air force officer of the rank of air commodore or higher. Such officers may be termed "officers of air rank". While the term originated in the Royal Air Force, air officers are also to be found in many Commonwealth of Natio ...

of the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

. He is the current and 28th Chief of the Air Staff (CAS). He took over as the 28th CAS, succeeding Air Chief Marshal

Vivek Ram Chaudhari Air chief marshal (India), Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari, is a retired four-star air officer of the Indian Air Force who served as the Chief of the Air Staff (India), Chief of the Air Staff. He took over as the 27th Chief of the Air St ...

, on 30 September 2024. He was previously serving as the 47th Vice Chief of the Air Staff. He was previously serving as the

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Central Air Command The Central Air Command is one of the five operational commands of the Indian Air Force. It is currently headquartered in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. It was formed on 19 March 1962, at Rani Kuthee, Calcutta. History Due to the possibility of ...

, prior to that he served as the Senior Air Staff Officer at the Eastern Air Command.

Early life and education

Amar Preet Singh is an alumnus of S.B.M. School, Delhi and later the

National Defence Academy The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the joint defence service training institute of the Indian Armed Forces. Here, cadets of the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force train together before they go on to their respective service a ...

, Khadakwasla and the

Air Force Academy An air force academy or air academy is a national institution that provides initial officer training, possibly including undergraduate level education, to air force officer cadets who are preparing to be commissioned officers in a national air forc ...

, Dundigal. He is also an alumnus of

Defence Services Staff College The Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) is a defence service training institution of the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. It trains officers of all three services of the Indian Armed Forces – (Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Air ...

, Wellington and National Defence College,

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

Military Career

Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh was commissioned into the fighter stream of the

on 21 December 1984 from the

Dundigal Dundigal, officially Dundigal Gandimaisamma, is a mandal and a municipality in the Medchal-Malkajgiri district in the Indian state of Telangana. It is the headquarters of the Dundigal mandal in the Malkajgiri revenue division of Medchal-Malkaj ...

. In a distinguished career spanning across 38 years, he has tenanted various staff and instructional appointments. He has flown a variety of fighter and trainer aircraft with more than 5000 hours of operational flying. He is a Qualified Flying Instructor and an experimental test pilot with service flying on a variety of fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft. As

Wing Commander Wing commander (Wg Cdr or W/C) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Wing commander is immediately se ...

, he commanded the No. 22 squadron, then made up of the

MiG-27 The Mikoyan MiG-27 (; NATO reporting name: Flogger-D/J) is a variable-sweep ground-attack aircraft, originally built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union and later licence-produced in India by Hindustan Aeronautics as t ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

. He spearheaded the

MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twinjet, twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the MiG-29, along with the large ...

Upgrade Project Management Team at

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Russia and was instrumental in flight testing of the

HAL Tejas The HAL Tejas () is an Indian single-engine, delta wing, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole Military aircraft, combat aircraft designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for t ...

. He served as the Chief Test Pilot at Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment. After being promoted to the rank of

Air Vice Marshal Air vice-marshal (Air Vce Mshl or AVM) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries which have historical British infl ...

, he served as the Project Director at National Flight Test Center,

Aeronautical Development Agency The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), under the Department of Defence Research and Development (DR&D) of India's Ministry of Defence, was established in Bangalore in 1984 to oversee the development of the India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA ...

and as the Air Officer Commanding of 2 Air Defence Control Centre at

Gandhinagar Gandhinagar () is the capital of the state of Gujarat in India. Gandhinagar is located approximately 23 km north of Ahmedabad, on the west central point of the industrial corridor between the megacities of Delhi and Mumbai. Gandhinagar ...

. After being promoted to the rank of Air Marshal, he was appointed as the Senior Air Staff Officer of the Eastern Air Command at

Shillong Shillong (, ) is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India. It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in India, 330th most populous city ...

. A year later, on 1 July 2022, he took over as the

succeeding Air Marshal

Richard John Duckworth Air Marshal Richard John Duckworth, AVSM, VSM is a retired officer of the Indian Air Force. He served as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), Central Air Command. He assumed the office on 1 July 2021 succeeding Air Marshal Amit Tiwar ...

who superannuated from service on 30 June 2022. On 1 February 2023, Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh took over as the 47th Vice Chief of the Air Staff succeeding Air Marshal

Sandeep Singh Sandeep Singh (born 27 February 1986) is an Indian professional field hockey player from Haryana and an ex-captain of the Indian national hockey team. He generally features as a full back and is a penalty corner specialist for the team. He ...

when the latter superannuated from service on 31 January 2023. As VCAS, he was at the forefront of the largest ever multinational Air

Exercise Tarang Shakti Exercise Tarang Shakti is a biennial multinational air combat exercise hosted by the Indian Air Force. The first edition of the exercise, previously planned in 2023, was held in August and September 2024. An estimated 150 aircraft participated in ...

held in India that was concluded in September 2024. In a significant message on the importance and the efficiency of India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, he flew extensively during the drill including a sortie with VCOAS

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

N. S. Raja Subramani Lieutenant General N. S. Raja Subramani, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM is a serving general officer of the Indian Army. He currently serves as the 47th Vice Chief of the Army Staff. He was previously tenanting the appointment of General Officer Command ...

and VCNS

Vice Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

Krishna Swaminathan.

Chief of the Air Staff

On 21 September 2024, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

appointed Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh as the next Chief of the Air Staff. On 30 September 2024,

Amar Preet Singh took over as the 28th Chief of the Air Staff succeeding

who superannuated after more than four decades of service. In February 2025, during Aero India 2025, Singh criticized

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian public sector aerospace and defence company, headquartered in Bengaluru. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manufacturers in the world. H ...

(HAL) for delays in delivering of the Tejas fighter aircraft. He has also supported the

procurement Procurement is the process of locating and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. The term may also refer to a contractual ...

of indigenously designed defence systems over imports from international companies.

Personal life

Air Marshal Singh is a keen squash player. He is married to Mrs Sarita Singh. The couple is blessed with a son and a daughter.

Awards and decorations

During his career, he has been awarded with the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2019 and Param Vishisht Seva Medal in 2023.

Dates of rank

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Amar Preet Indian Air Force air marshals Recipients of the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Vice chiefs of Air Staff (India) Defence Services Staff College alumni National Defence College, India alumni National Defence Academy (India) alumni