The Indian Air Force (IAF), the aerial component of the Indian Armed Forces follows a certain hierarchy of rank designations and insignia derived from the erstwhile Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF).[1]
Upon the establishment of establishment of India's independence in 1947, the country became a dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations; nevertheless, the armed forces, namely, the British Indian Army (BIA), the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) and the Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) - under the helm of King George VI as the Commander-in-Chief, retained their respective pre-independence ranks and corresponding insignia.
In May 1949, Lord Mountbatten, the inaugural Governor-General of India and himself a naval officer, dispatched a note to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, titled Names and Insignia of Indian Armed Forces, containing a list of suggestions regarding the nomenclature of the armed forces that were to be enforced upon the dominion's conversion to a republic.[2]
In the note, Mountbatten proposed that the future IAF should retain its predecessor's nomenclature as much as possible - advocating the retention of the RIAF's ranks, insignia and uniforms.[2] It was later decided that the rank braids of the officers cadre remained unchanged, whilst the three lions of Ashoka i.e., the State Emblem of India should replace the Tudor Crown on the insignia, flying badges and peak caps of airmen ranks.[3] Additionally, busts of the State Emblem and a semi-Chakra were incorporated as the main features on the badges corresponding to Master Warrant Officers (MWO) and Warrant Officers (WO); nonetheless, the MWO's badge was decided to be superimposed on the rank braids of the Pilot Officers.[3]
In September 1949, Nehru forwarded the proposals to the country's minister of defence, Baldev Singh, recommending Mountbatten's suggestions, which were consequently enforced upon India's emergence as a republic on 26 January 1950.[2]
Presently, the IAF's rank hierarchy is divided into three broad categories:
The IAF has ten commissioned officer (CO) ranks, of which the highest is that of Marshal of the Indian Air Force (MIAF), a ceremonial five-star rank.[4] The rank was awarded for the first, yet only time in January 2002 to then-retired Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh, who served as the IAF's third Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) between 1964 and 1969, for his exceptional leadership of the IAF during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War.[4]
The highest operational rank in the IAF is the four-star rank of Air Chief Marshal, currently held exclusively by the CAS; coincidentally, the first time the rank was awarded was also to Singh in 1966, when he was then a Air Marshal.[5] Prior to him, CAS appointees belonged to the three-star rank of Air Marshal.[5]
Sometime towards the end of Air Chief Marshal S. K. Sareen's tenure in 1998, the IAF introduced a new series gorget patches for its CO cadre - blue collar tabs embossed with white stars denoting the rank of the particular wearer; five for MIAF, four for Air Chief Marshal, three for Air Marshal, two for Air Vice Marshal and one for Air Commodore.[6] Initially, for the rank of Air Marshal, the collar tabs did not immediately distinguish between the positions of Vice Chief of the Air Staff (VCAS), Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) and other three-star designated positions; however, later three-star collar tabs were embossed with a wreath design to solely indicate the positions of VCAS and AOC-in-C.[6]
The rank of Master Warrant Officer was introduced in February 1950.[7]
Effective from 16 May 1977, the rank of Flight Sergeant was abolished and replaced with the rank of Junior Warrant Officer; existing warrant officer rank insignia were modified accordingly.[8] [9]
The rank of Pilot Officer is no longer in use; all new officers are commissioned as Flying Officers.
| Officers | Non-commissioned officers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shoulder Insignia | Arm | |||||
| Rank | Pilot officer Hindi: पायलट अफसर | Warrant officer Hindi: वारंट अफसर | Junior warrant officer Hindi: जूनियर वारंट अफसर | Flight sergeant Hindi: फ्लाइट सार्जेंट | ||