How the IAF's five operational commands and its Training and Maintenance Commands were raised, from 1949 to 1984.
Southern Air Command, the last to be raised
Southern Air Command was raised on 19 July 1984, the newest of the Indian Air Force's seven commands. A paper on its formation went to the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on 10 July, and sanction came nine days later. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi inaugurated the headquarters on 20 July. Air Marshal T.J. Desa was its first Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief.
Its area covers peninsular India up to 18 degrees north, with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. Headquarters began at Belhaven Palace in Thiruvananthapuram and moved to Akkulam on 8 August 1996.
The other four operational commands
Western Air Command descends from No. 1 Operational Group, which at Independence controlled all flying units. That group became Operational Command on 22 July 1949. The Western title followed in the early 1960s: one Bharat Rakshak page says 1962, its unit database 1 June 1963. Headquarters is in New Delhi.
Eastern Air Command was raised at Calcutta on 1 December 1959. The 1962 conflict with China exposed the limits of that location, and headquarters moved to Shillong in 1963.
Central Air Command began at Rani Kuthi in Calcutta. The sources differ on the date: the IAF site gives March 1962, Bharat Rakshak June 1963. Both agree that it moved to Allahabad, now Prayagraj, in February 1966.
South Western Air Command started as a No. 1 Operational Group at Jodhpur on 21 September 1972 and took its present name on 23 July 1980. Its headquarters moved to Gandhinagar, where the new premises opened on 1 May 1998.
Training and Maintenance
Training Command traces its line to No. 2 Training Group, set up immediately after Independence. It was formed under its present name on 22 July 1949, the same day as Operational Command, and has its headquarters in Bengaluru.
Maintenance Command began as a Maintenance Group at Chakeri, Kanpur. It became a command on 26 January 1955. It handles repair, overhaul, storage and issue of spares through Base Repair Depots and Equipment Depots. Its headquarters is at Vayusena Nagar in Nagpur.
Cover image: Ministry of Defence, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Air_Officer-in-charge_Maintenance_Command,_Air_Marshal_P.P._Khandekar_addressing_the_Senior_Maintenance_Staff_Officers_of_all_Operational_Commands,_Training_Command_%26_Maintenance_Command_Air_Officers.jpg