Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, PVSM, AVSM, VM, VSM took over as vice chief of the air staff 1 July 2026.

The Air Marshal was commissioned into the fighter stream of IAF on 6 December 1986. He is an alumnus of NDA, Defence Staff Service College (Bangladesh) and National Defence College with more than 3,500 hours of flying on aircraft like Mirage-2000, variants of MiG, HPT-32, An-32, Avro, Kiran, Jaguar, IL-78, Hawk and Tejas. He is an experimental test pilot and a qualified flying instructor. During his service career, spanning nearly four decades, he has been actively involved in numerous operations and exercises such as Op Safed Sagar, Op Rakshak, Cope India and Op Sindoor.

He has held a number of significant field and staff appointments. As Commanding Officer, he re-equipped No. 9 Sqn with Mirage-2000 and later commanded a front line fighter air base in western sector and a premiere fighter training base in southern sector. He has served as a directing staff at Air Force Test Pilots School and held the staff appointment of Principle Director Air Staff Requirement at Air HQ. The Air Officer held the appointment of Air Defence Commander of Southern Air Command and tenanted the appointments of Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Projects), Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Plans) at Air Headquarters (Vayu Bhawan), Senior Air Staff Officer at Head Quarters South Western Air Command and Deputy Chief of Air Staff at Air Headquarters.

Prior to assuming charge as the vice chief of the air staff, the Air Marshal served as Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Central Air Command, and thereafter as the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) at Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS).