New Delhi. Air Marshal D Choudhury has taken over as Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO), Western Air Command (WAC).

Air Marshal is an alumnus of National Defence Academy (NDA), and was commissioned on December 22, 1983. The Air Officer is a Fighter Combat Leader and an Instrument Rating Instructor and Examiner. He is an alumnus of Royal College of Defence Studies UK, a Post Graduate in Strategy and International Security from King’s College London and Master of Philosophy on Defence and Strategic Studies.

He has over 5000 sorties of flying on operational fighter, and is Fully Ops and MG on MiG-21 (all variants), MiG-27, MiG-29 and Su-30 aircraft. He has commanded 15 Sqn, Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) and two frontline bases as the AOC.

Air Marshal Choudhury has served two tenures at TACDE – first as an Instructor and then as Commandant. He has held staff appointments in Air HQ as Director Air Staff Inspection, Director Operations Joint Planning and Director Operational Planning and Assessment Group.

He has served as Air-I of HQ WAC, Air Defence Commander of HQ CAC and HQ SWAC, AOC of COBRA Group and Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Insp) at Air HQ (RKP). Air Marshal has vast experience in fighter operations and planning at the field, operational and strategic levels. He has led three International exercises – Red Flag, Desert Eagle and Garuda, and has also authored a large number of service papers on operational matters, Air Power and Leadership, many of which have been implemented/ published.

The Air Marshal was awarded the CAS commendation in August 1992, Vishisht Seva Medal in January 2007, Vayu Sena Medal in January 2011 and Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in January 2018.