The Chief of Air Staff is an officer of the rank of Air Chief Marshal. Our Air Force is divided into seven Commands. The Central, Western, and Southern Air Commands are operational ones. The Training and Maintenance Commands are functional commands.
Air Force personnel receive training for flying at the Air Force Academy at Dundigat. Technical and administrative training is provided at Bangalore and Coimbatore respectively.
Today the Air Force has a wide variety of modern equipments, weapon systems, communication and detection systems. For example, air superiority fighter – Mig 29 aircraft, multi-role combat aircraft-Mirage 2000 and Su-30 aircraft, strike or air defence aircraft-Jaguar, Mig 21, Mig 23, Mig 25, and Mig 27 aircraft, transport fleet – IL-76, An 32, and HAL manufactured Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, Mi 8, Mi 17, and heavy lift Mi 26 helicopter, attack helicopters like Mi 25 and Mi 35 helicopters, some of our aircraft are manufactured at the public sector undertaking, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) near Bangalore and the rest are purchased from abroad.