New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) Air Marshal D.C. ‘Tiny’ Kumaria, a veteran fighter pilot, will Friday take over as the Indian Air Force (IAF) vice chief.
Kumaria currently heads the New Delhi-based Western Air Command, the IAF’s most vital operational command and swordarm.
Schooled at the Dehradun-based Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Kumaria graduated from the Khadakwasla-based National Defence Academy (NDA) and was commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF on Jun 2, 1973.
Early in his career, he flew all variants of the Soviet-origin MiG-21 aircraft and was among the first batch of fighter pilots chosen to convert on the Jaguar aircraft when it was acquired from Britain.
He also underwent a Qualified Weapons Instructor course in Britain, as well as the Instrument Rating Instructor and Examiner and Fighter Combat Leader courses, with a tenure as directing staff at the Gwalior-based Tactics and Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) – India’s Top Gun fighter training school.
A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) at Wellington, he was also principal director of concept studies at IAF headquarters, where he had been especially selected to write the air power doctrine of the IAF.
He was the first assistant chief of the air staff (Operations-Space) at IAF headquarters and on elevation to the rank of Air Marshal, was appointed as the first director general (Air Operations) at IAF headquarters.
His foreign assignments include serving as the assistant defence advisor (Air) at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka and as the defence attache at the Indian embassy in Rome with concurrent accreditation to the Iberian countries.
