Command Stations of Indian Air Force – General Awareness Study Material & Notes
Every proud Indian should have the knowledge of the bases of our prestigious and able Air Force. Therefore, here is a short compilation of the command stations located across the country which serve the Air force of India.
The Indian Air Force is divided into 5 operational and 2 functional commands. Each of these Command is headed by an Air Officer Commander-in-Chief who is a rank holder of Air Marshal.
The purpose of keeping an operational command is to carry out the military operations using aircrafts within its entrusted area of responsibility. While the responsibility of the functional commands is to maintain combat readiness at all times.
Apart from the Training Command located at Bangalore, there is a centre for primary flight training located at the Air Force Academy, Hyderabad. The Advanced officer training for command positions is conducted at the Defence Services Staff College. While specialised advanced flight training schools are located at Bidar in Karnataka, and Hakimpet in Andhra Pradesh. The Technical schools are located at a number of other locations. also.
Let us now look into different operational commands:
- Central Air Command (CAC)- It is headquartered at Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh ; operates Air Bases in Madhya Pradesh and surrounding states of central parts of India
- Eastern Air Command (EAC)– It is headquartered at Shillong, Meghalaya; operates Air bases in Eastern and North-eastern parts of India
- Southern Air Command (SAC)- It is headquartered at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; strategically important Air command protecting the vital shipping routes ; operates Air bases in Southern India and in the parts Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- South Western Air Command (SWAC)– It is headquartered at Gandhinagar, Gujarat ; front line of defence against Pakistan ; operates bases in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan region.
- Western Air Command (WAC) – It is headquartered at Subroto Park, New Delhi: largest Air Command ; operates air bases from parts of Punjab to Uttar Pradesh.
The Functional Commands are located following places:
- Training Command (TC)– It is headquartered at Bangalore, Karnataka
- Maintenance Command (MC)– It is headquartered at Nagpur, Maharashtra
Furthermore, India also operates the Farkhor Air Base also known as the Ayni airbase hosting a Indian “military outpost” in Tajikistan (around 15 km from Tajik capital Dushanbe), though officialy both government donot comment much about the base.
