The Indian Air Force has appointed Air Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari as the new commander-in-chief of the IAF's Western Air Command (WAC), the formation responsible for the aerial defence of the sensitive Ladakh sector as well as the other regions of North India, officials told PTI.

Air Marshal Chaudhari's appointment as Chief of the WAC comes at a very critical juncture at the backdrop of the enhanced operational deployment of the Indian Air Force in the eastern Ladakh on account of the stand-off between the Indian and Chinese Armies along the Line of Actual Control.

Air Marshal Chaudhari, who is currently tenanting the appointment of senior air staff officer in Eastern Air Command and will assume command on August 1, succeeding Air Marshal B Suresh.

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In wake of the escalation and aggressive military posturing by the People's Liberation Army along the LAC in Ladakh the Indian Army as well as the IAF has beefed up its deployment of mechanized coloumns, field artillery and aerial assets in the sensitive sector. Over the past few weeks, the IAF has been carrying out night time combat air patrols over the eastern Ladakh region.

It has already deployed almost all its frontline fighter jets like Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar and Mirage 2000 aircraft in frontier bases in Ladakh as well as in several other places along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).




An alumni of the National Defence Academy, Air Marshal Chaudhari was commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF on December 29, 1982. He has flown a range of aircraft including MiG-21, MiG-23MF, MiG-29 and SU-30MKI. Air Marshal Chaudhari was also involved in the Rafale acquisition programme.