South Western Air Command Explained

Unit Name:	South Western Air Command, Indian Air Force
Start Date:	23 July 1980
Country:	India
Branch:	Indian Air Force
Type:	Operational Air Command
Role:	Air Defence, Maritime strike role.
Garrison:	Gandhinagar
Garrison Label:	Headquarters
Motto:	Sanskrit: Jai Shree Varte Veeramh|script=Latn Victory embraces the brave
Commander1:	Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari, AVSM, VM^[1]
Commander1 Label:	Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

The South Western Air Command is one of the five operational commands of the Indian Air Force. It was raised in Jodhpur in July 1980 from the No.1 Operations Group of the Western Air Command. Its operations sector includes most of Rajasthan, through Gujarat and Saurashtra, as far south as Kutch and Pune. The SWAC moved to its current headquarters in Gandhinagar in May 1998, and incorporates the Indian airbases of Bhuj, Jaisalmer, Phalodi, Naliya, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Uttarlai/Barmer and Pune. It controls air operations in the south western air sector, which includes most of Rajasthan, and south through Gujarat to Saurashtra, and Kutch to Pune. It also operates the forward airbases at Vadodara, Nal and Suratgarh. The SWAC's role has historically been largely of air defence, although it has been reported to have incorporated a strike profile.

Organisation

Squadrons include:

Squadron	Base	Equipment	Notes
No. 20 Squadron IAF	Lohegaon Air Force Station	Su-30MKI	No. 2 Wing
No. 30 Squadron IAF	Lohegaon Air Force Station	Su-30MKI	No. 2 Wing
No. 15 Squadron IAF	Bhuj Air Force Station	Su-30 MKI	No. 27 Wing
No. 31 Squadron IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	Su-30 MKI	No.32 Wing
No. 107 Helicopter Unit, IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	Mi-8	No. 32 Wing
No. 116 Helicopter Unit, IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	HAL Chetak	No. 32 Wing
No. 119 Helicopter Unit, IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	Mi-8	No. 32 Wing
No. 143 Helicopter Unit, IAF	Jodhpur Air Force Station	HAL Prachand
No. 6 Squadron IAF	Jamnagar Air Force Station	JaguarIS/IM/IB	No. 33 Wing
No. 28 Squadron IAF	Jamnagar Air Force Station	Mig 29	No.33 Wing
No. 141 SSS Flight, IAF	Jamnagar Air Force Station	HAL Chetak	No. 33 Wing IAF
No. 23 Squadron IAF	Suratgarh Air Force Station	Mig-21	No. 35 Wing IAF
No. 104 Helicopter Squadron, IAF	Suratgarh Air Force Station	Mi-35	No. 35 Wing
No. 11 Squadron IAF	Vadodara Air Force Station	Airbus C295	No. 36 Wing
No. 44 Squadron IAF	Nagpur Air Force Station	Il-76MD	No. 44 Wing
No. 4 Squadron IAF	Uttarlai Air Force Station	MiG-21 Bison	No. 5 FBSU

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

+List of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief	Rank	Name	From	To
Air Marshal	Jagdish Raj Bhasin	^[2]
	Chandra Kant Viswanath Gole
	Subramaniam Raghavendran
	Prem Pal Singh
	Surendra Kumar Mehra
	Partha Kumar Dey
	Brijesh Dhar Jayal
	Satish Kumar Sareen
	Kodendera Cariappa Cariappa
	Sharadkumar Ramakrishna Deshpande
	Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy
	Vinod Kumar Bhatia
	Michael McMahon
	Shashindra Pal Tyagi
	Adi Rustomji Ghandhi
	Satish Kumar Jain
	Pramod Kumar Mehra
	Kanwar Dalinderjit Singh
	Paramjit Singh Bhangu
	Anjan Gogoi
	Daljit Singh
	Birender Singh Dhanoa
	Ravinder Kumar Dhir
	Harjit Singh Arora
	Surendra Kumar Ghotia
	Sandeep Singh
	Vikram Singh
	Narmdeshwar Tiwari		Incumbent

External links

• Bharat-Rakshak.com, IAF COMMAND STRUCTURE

Notes and References

1. 1653005270392672259. SWAC_IAF. Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari took over as AOC-in-C #SWAC on 01 May 23. 2023-05-01.
2. News: South Western Air Command - BRF . 15 May 2021. Bharat Rakshak.