Air Commodore Pankaj Jain takes over as Air Officer Commanding of AFS Hakimpet

The Air Officer is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Pune and was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force in 1992.

Hyderabad: Air Commodore Pankaj Jain took over as Air Officer Commanding of Air Force Station, Hakimpet, Hyderabad from Air Commodore Manish Sabharwal, VSM on Thursday. The personnel of Air Force Station presented an impressive parade to mark the handing/taking over ceremony.

The Air Officer is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Pune and was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force in 1992. He has flown various fighter aircraft like Su-30, MiG-21 and MiG-29 through his career. As a Cat ‘A’ Qualified Flying Instructor, he had a long instructional stint, wherein he has flown training aircraft like Hawk, Iskara, Kiran and HPT-32 and has been a Directing Staff at the prestigious Flying Instructors School. He was the youngest member of the commissioning aircrew for the Su-30 aircraft, when they were inducted into the IAF in 1997.

He was instrumental in inducting the Embraer-based Airborne Early Warning and Control System into the IAF as the first Commanding Officer designate of a new formation, christened as 200 Squadron.

During his illustrious career, Air Commodore Pankaj Jain has held several important appointments at various Air Force Bases. He has commanded a front-line fighter base, Air Force Station, Bathinda and later served as Command Ops Planning Officer at CATSPAW of HQ South Western Air Command (SWAC), the Ops 1A at HQ SWAC, Directing Staff at Naval War College and Deputy Commandant of College of Air Warfare.