Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit takes charge as the new IAF chief. He brings nearly four decades of experience to this role. A skilled fighter pilot, he logged over 3,500 flying hours on many aircraft. He also held senior positions at Air Headquarters and commanded a frontline fighter base before today.
Air Chief Marshal Dixit has had a career spanning nearly four decades. A fighter pilot and experimental test pilot, he has logged over 3,500 hours of flying on various aircraft, including the Mirage-2000, Jaguar, MiG variants, Tejas, Hawk, Kiran, An-32 and IL-78.
He has also been associated with several major military operations and exercises, including Operation Safed Sagar, Operation Rakshak, Cope India and Operation Sindoor.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College in Bangladesh and the National Defence College, Dixit is also a qualified flying instructor. During the early years of his career, he served as an instructor at the Air Force Test Pilots School before taking command of a fighter squadron.
Over the course of his career, Dixit held several important operational and staff positions. He commanded a frontline fighter base in the Western Sector and a fighter training base in the Southern Sector. He also served as air defence commander of Southern Air Command and held senior positions at Air Headquarters, including assistant chief of the air staff (projects), assistant chief of the air staff (plans) and deputy chief of the air staff.