Vice Chief of the Air Staff (India)
The Vice Chief of the Air Staff is the second-highest ranking Officer in the Indian Air Force. The VCAS is a PSO at Air Headquarters at New Delhi. He is responsible for operation and flying related tasks. In the event that the Chief of Air Staff is absent or is unable to perform his duties, the VCAS assumes the duties and responsibilities of the CAS.
The VCAS is a three-star appointment and is held by an Air Officer of the rank of Air Marshal.
The current VCAS is Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora. He succeeded Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria to the post in September 2019.
As Vice Chief, Air Marshal Arora will directly be in charge of IAF's ongoing capability build-up and visualizing its future technology requirements.
Order of Precedence
The VCAS ranks at No. 23 on the Indian order of precedence, along with the Vice Chiefs of Staff of the Indian Army and Indian Navy and the Army Commanders, Naval Commanders and Air Commanders. The VCAS is at the Apex Pay grade, with a monthly pay of ₹225,000.Appointees
| No. | Rank | Name | Appointment date | Left office | References |
| 1 | Air Vice Marshal | Atma Ram Nanda | 01 01 1963 | 04 08 1963 | |
| 2 | Air Vice Marshal | Arjan Singh** | 05 08 1963 | 31 07 1964 | |
| 3 | Air Vice Marshal | Pratap Chandra Lal** | 01 10 1964 | 14 01 1966 | |
| 3 | Air Marshal | Pratap Chandra Lal** | 15 01 1966 | 01 09 1966 | |
| 4 | Air Marshal | Ramaswamy Rajaram | 13 12 1966 | 18 06 1969 | |
| 5 | Air Marshal | Shivdev Singh | 15 07 1969 | 31 03 1973 | |
| 6 | Air Marshal | Yeshwant Vinayak Malse | 01 04 1973 | 30 09 1973 | |
| 7 | Air Marshal | Hari Chand Dewan | 01 10 1973 | 31 03 1976 | |
| 8 | Air Marshal | Anand Ramdas Pandit | 01 04 1976 | 31 03 1977 | |
| 9 | Air Marshal | Idris Hasan Latif** | 19 05 1977 | 31 08 1978 | |
| 10 | Air Marshal | Edul Jahangir Dhatigara | 04 09 1978 | 31 01 1980 | |
| 11 | Air Marshal | Lal Singh Grewal | 01 02 1980 | 31 12 1980 | |
| 12 | Air Marshal | Trilochan Singh Brar | 22 09 1981 | 31 12 1983 | |
| 13 | Air Marshal | Jagdish Raj Bhasin | 01 01 1984 | 31 10 1984 | |
| 14 | Air Marshal | Prem Pal Singh | 01 11 1984 | 31 10 1984 | |
| 15 | Air Marshal | Subramaniam Raghavendran | 01 01 1986 | 29 02 1988 | |
| 16 | Air Marshal | Nirmal Chandra Suri** | 01 03 1988 | 31 08 1991 | |
| 17 | Air Marshal | Palamadai Muthuswamy Ramachandran | 14 10 1991 | 28 02 1993 | |
| 18 | Air Marshal | Pondicherry Jayarao Jayakumar | 01 03 1993 | 30 04 1994 | |
| 19 | Air Marshal | Pratap Rao | 06 06 1994 | 31 07 1995 | |
| 20 | Air Marshal | Satish Kumar Sareen** | 01 08 1995 | 31 12 1995 | |
| 21 | Air Marshal | Trevor Raymond Joseph Osman | 01 01 1996 | 31 03 1997 | |
| 22 | Air Marshal | Anil Yashwant Tipnis** | 01 04 1997 | 31 12 1998 | |
| 23 | Air Marshal | Prithvi Singh Brar | 04 01 1999 | 31 07 2000 | |
| 24 | Air Marshal | Vinod Patney | 01 08 2000 | 31 07 2001 | |
| 25 | Air Marshal | Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy** | 01 08 2001 | 31 12 2001 | |
| 26 | Air Marshal | Satish Govind Inamdar | 01 01 2002 | 31 01 2003 | |
| 27 | Air Marshal | Michael McMahon | 01 02 2003 | 30 09 2004 | |
| 28 | Air Marshal | Sunil Kumar Malik | 01 01 2011 | 31 07 2011 | |
| 29 | Air Marshal | Ajit Bhavnani | 18 07 2005 | 31 10 2006 | |
| 30 | Air Marshal | B. N. Gokhale | 01 11 2006 | 31 12 2007 | |
| 31 | Air Marshal | Pradeep Vasant Naik** | 01 01 2008 | 31 05 2009 | |
| 32 | Air Marshal | Pranab Kumar Barbora | 01 06 2009 | 31 12 2010 | |
| 33 | Air Marshal | Norman Anil Kumar Browne** | 01 01 2011 | 31 07 2011 | |
| 34 | Air Marshal | Krishan Kumar Nohwar | 01 08 2011 | 31 05 2012 | |
| 35 | Air Marshal | Dinesh Chandra Kumaria | 01 06 2012 | 30 06 2013 | |
| 36 | Air Marshal | Arup Raha** | 01 07 2013 | 31 12 2013 | |
| 37 | Air Marshal | Ravi Kant Sharma | 31 12 2013 | 30 05 2015 | |
| 38 | Air Marshal | Birender Singh Dhanoa** | 31 05 2015 | 31 12 2016 | |
| 39 | Air Marshal | Shirish Baban Deo | 31 12 2016 | 30 09 2018 | |
| 40 | Air Marshal | Anil Khosla | 01 10 2018 | 30 04 2019 | |
| 41 | Air Marshal | Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria** | 01 05 2019 | 30 09 2019 | |
| 42 | Air Marshal | Harjit Singh Arora | 01 10 2019 | Incumbent |