An ace test pilot, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh on Monday took over as the new chief of the Indian Air Force.

He took the charge today from Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari who superannuated today after a three-year stint as chief.

Air Chief Marshal Singh was previously the Vice Chief of the Air Staff.

Born on October 27, 1964, ACM Singh was commissioned into the fighter pilot stream of the Indian Air Force in December 1984.

During his long and distinguished service spanning nearly 40 years, he has served in a variety of Command, Staff, Instructional and Foreign appointments.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College and National Defence College, he is a Qualified Flying Instructor and an Experimental Test Pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience on a variety of fixed and rotary wing aircraft.

During his career, the officer has commanded an operational fighter squadron and a frontline air base. As a test pilot, he led the MiG-29 Upgrade Project Management Team at Moscow, Russia.

ACM Singh was also the Project Director (Flight Test) at National Flight Test Centre and was tasked with flight testing of the Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas.

He has held important staff appointments of Air Defence Commander at South Western Air Command and Senior Air Staff Officer at Eastern Air Command.

He was also the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command before moving to Air Headquarters.