Who's Who in Indian Defence: Every Current Chief, Commander and Head

Constitutional and Civil Leadership

The armed forces answer to elected civilians. The President is the Supreme Commander under Article 53(2) of the Constitution. In practice the government of the day directs the forces through the Raksha Mantri, and a civil servant, the Defence Secretary, heads the Ministry's Department of Defence and co-ordinates its five departments.

The Raksha Mantri is the Cabinet minister in charge of the Ministry; the Raksha Rajya Mantri is the Minister of State who assists him. The Defence Secretary's Department of Defence handles the budget, policy, Parliament matters and defence co-operation with other countries, while the CDS heads the separate Department of Military Affairs. The Ministry's structure is on mod.gov.in, and our page on the Ministry of Defence goes through each department.

Tri-Service Leadership

Four posts sit above or across the three services. They exist so that the Army, Navy and Air Force plan, train and fight together.

• The CDS is a four-star General (or the equivalent in the other services), heads the Department of Military Affairs as its Secretary, and is the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. The Union Cabinet approved the post on 24 December 2019, and PIB's announcement says the CDS exercises no military command, including over the three Service Chiefs, so that his advice stays impartial.
• The CISC runs the Integrated Defence Staff.
• The Andaman and Nicobar Command (Port Blair) and the Strategic Forces Command are India's two tri-service commands. Their heads come from different services over time. The theatre commands now under discussion would add more.

Army: the Chief, the Vice Chief and the Seven Commands

The Army is led from Army Headquarters in New Delhi by the Chief of the Army Staff, a General, with a Lieutenant General as Vice Chief. Below them are seven commands, each headed by a GOC-in-C who is a Lieutenant General. Six are operational and one, ARTRAC, trains and writes doctrine. See Army Commands and Army hierarchy.

A service's own website can lag a handover by days or weeks, so a row here may briefly differ from it. We follow the primary announcement and say so in the Source column.

Navy: the Chief, the Vice Chief and the Three Commands

The Navy has three commands, each under a Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) of Vice Admiral rank: two operational, Western at Mumbai and Eastern at Visakhapatnam, and one training command, Southern, at Kochi. Note the title: the Navy says FOC-in-C, the Army says GOC-in-C, the Air Force says AOC-in-C. Details are on Naval Commands.

Air Force: the Chief, the Vice Chief and the Seven Commands

The Air Force has seven commands, each under an Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) who is an Air Marshal. Five are operational and two are functional (Training and Maintenance). History and areas are on Air Force Commands.

Several Air Force rows are only days old: a change of Chief sends a chain of moves down through the Vice Chief and the commands. Our article on the Air Force leadership change explains who moved where.

Coast Guard, DRDO and the Border Roads Organisation

Three heads sit outside the three services. The Indian Coast Guard is an armed force under the Ministry of Defence and is headed by a Director General. DRDO is the Ministry's research and development body, and the Border Roads Organisation builds roads and bridges in border areas. The Coast Guard's site lists every Director General since 1978 (official list), and the force has its own page, Indian Coast Guard.

How Appointments Are Made

Knowing who holds a post is a short-term skill. Knowing how the post is filled lasts. These are the rules examiners rely on.

• The Government decides, and PIB announces each appointment as a Government decision. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), chaired by the Prime Minister, approved a CDS's extension in September 2025.
• Seniority-cum-merit. The next Chief is usually drawn from the senior-most officers of the rank below, often the Vice Chief, but seniority is a convention, not a legal bar.
• Service Chiefs serve three years or until age 62, whichever is earlier. This is the standing rule, as reported when the rules were amended in December 2019.
• The CDS can be extended up to age 65. A Defence Ministry notification of December 2019 amended the Army Rules, 1954 so that the Government may extend the CDS's service, in public interest, up to a maximum age of 65. This lets a Chief who has just retired at 62 become CDS.
• Commanders are posted by the Ministry, in batches, and most 2026 handovers took effect on the first of a month.

The rule is reported in the press (Scroll, December 2019), and the post's creation is in PIB's 24 December 2019 release. Background on the President and the Union Executive is in our study notes.

Firsts and Records

These are historical and will not change, which makes them the safest questions in the section. The longer lists are on Chiefs of the Army Staff, Chiefs of the Naval Staff and Chiefs of the Air Staff. The wider list is on military firsts.

India has had no Admiral of the Fleet, and the Coast Guard has no five-star rank. Women's firsts are on women in the defence forces; ranks are on Rank Equivalence.

How We Keep This Page Current

The method is simple enough to copy for your own notes.

• One data file for the whole library. The holder, the "since" date and the source link for each post live in one place, and every page reads its names from it. When a Chief changes, one edit updates every page at the next build.
• Checked every month. In the first week of each month, all 34 posts are checked against PIB and the services' own pages, since most handovers take effect on the first or last day of a month. The "As on" date at the top of this page moves with each check, even when no name changed.
• Sources are ranked. PIB first, then the service's own site or official handle, then an established news agency. The Source column says "news report" where that is the only confirmation we found.

Staying Current for the Exam

The CDS, NDA, AFCAT and CAPF papers ask "who is the current Chief of ..." only a few times a year, but it is a clean mark. A short routine is enough.

• Follow PIB's Ministry of Defence releases. Every change is announced under a headline such as "takes over" or "assumes charge". Five minutes a week is enough.
• Learn the posts first, the names second. One Chief, one Vice Chief, seven Army commands, three Navy commands, seven Air Force commands: with that structure any name is quick to place.
• Write the date next to every name, and recheck a week before the paper. For the SSB, "Who is the Chief of your chosen service?" is a standard opener: see the personal interview guide.

Exam pins

Asked in past papers

The papers we hold ask about the structure of command and the firsts far more than about names.

Practice MCQs (with answers)

1. The Chief of Defence Staff heads which department of the Ministry of Defence?
   1. Department of Military Affairs
   2. Department of Defence
   3. Department of Defence Production
   4. Department of Defence Research and Development
2. The title Commander-in-Chief of the Army was changed to Chief of the Army Staff in
   1. 1947
   2. 1950
   3. 1955
   4. 1962
3. A Service Chief holds office for three years or until the age of ____ whichever is earlier; the CDS can be given extensions up to the age of ____.
   1. 60 and 62
   2. 62 and 65
   3. 65 and 67
   4. 58 and 62
4. An extension of a Chief of Defence Staff's tenure is approved by the
   1. Union Public Service Commission
   2. Chiefs of Staff Committee
   3. Defence Acquisition Council
   4. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
5. The first Director General of the Indian Coast Guard was
   1. Vice Admiral Swaraj Prakash
   2. Vice Admiral I J S Khurana
   3. Vice Admiral V A Kamath
   4. Vice Admiral M R Schunkar
6. The date on which General K M Cariappa took over as the first Indian Commander-in-Chief, 15 January, is observed as
   1. Army Day
   2. Vijay Diwas
   3. Kargil Vijay Diwas
   4. Infantry Day

Where to Go Next

Each service has its own page: the tri-services section, the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force. See also defence days and dates and training academies.

For practice, the NDA Polity notes and the CDS and OTA study material cover the Constitution side of defence, and the CDS PYQs and NDA PYQs show how these questions are framed. The daily defence current affairs carry every change of Chief or command, and our newsletter page sends them to your inbox.

Cavalier's CDS and OTA batches teach the defence section of the General Knowledge paper with weekly tests, then prepare you for the SSB, where our SSB coaching covers the "know your service" questions.