Two coursemates, 2 classmates will now head three Armed force services

With the appointment of Air Marshal AP Singh as the next Chief of Air Staff, two coursemates and two classmates will now be heading the three services – the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The appointment of Singh was announced on Saturday by the Defence Ministry.
While Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi and Air Marshal AP Singh were coursemates at the National Defence Academy and passed out from there in 1983, General Dwivedi and Indian Navy chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi were classmates from the Sainik School, Rewa in Madhya Pradesh.
This strong friendship amongst the three service chiefs is expected to enhance coordination and synergy between the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Born on October 27, 1964, Air Marshal 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, Singh 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. He 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. Prior to assuming the charge of Vice Chief of the Air Staff, he was the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command.