Air Marshal N A K Browne, an ace fighter pilot, will on Saturday take over as the Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force succeeding Air Marshal P K Barbora, who retires on Friday.
Commissioned into the fighter stream in 1972, Browne has flown aircraft including the vintage hunter, all variants of MiG-21s, Jaguar and SU-30MKI.
An alumnus of the national defence academy, he is a fighter combat leader and has also served as an instructor at the Tactics and combat development establishment (TACDE) and defence services staff college (DSSC), Wellington.
A graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, USA, the Air Marshal has held many key posts including Chief Operations Officer and Air Officer Commanding of a SU-30 base and Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Intelligence) at Air Headquarters.
He was also responsible for establishing the Indian Defence Wing in Tel Aviv, Israel in April 1997 where he served as the defence attache till July 2000.
Mr Browne was previously commanding the Delhi-based Western Air Command where he is being succeeded by Air Marshal D C Kumaria.
Commissioned as a fighter pilot in 1973, Kumaria has also served as India's Defence Attache in Italy and is also credited for scripting IAF's Air Power doctrine in 1994.
He was the first director general air (Operations) at air headquarters.
Kumaria was previously the Senior Air Staff Officer in the Gandhinagar-based South Western Air Command (SWAC).
In another significant appointment, Air Marshal A K Gogoi will take over as the chief of the SWAC.