Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, Chief of the Air Staff, Indian Air Force, will be succeeded by Air Marshal N.A.K. Browne who is currently the Vice Chief of the Air Staff.

Air Chief Marshal Naik, who will retire in July, will hand over the command to Air Marshal Browne on August 1. Browne was cleared to head the IAF by the Cabinet Committee on Appointments recently.

Air Marshal N.A.K. Browne was the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command before taking over as the Vice Chief of the Air Staff. And prior to taking over as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, the Air Marshal served in the crucial post of Deputy Chief of Air Staff at Air Headquarters, New Delhi. A Fighter Combat Leader, Air Marshal Browne has also served as an Instructor at the Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) and was trained with the RAF in UK on Jaguar aircraft in 1979. Subsequently, he commanded a Jaguar Squadron from 1990 to 1992.

A graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, US (1987-88), he served as Directing Staff at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington in 1989-90. In April 1997, he was responsible for establishing the Indian Defence Wing in Tel-Aviv, Israel, where he served as the Defence Attaché till July 2000. He has held a number of vital command and staff assignments in the IAF and was the Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Intelligence) at Air Headquarters from October 2004 to March 2007.

Browne has flown over 3,200 hours on various jet aircraft including the Hunter, all variants of MiG-21s, Jaguar and Su-30K.

He is the recipient of PVSM, AVSM and VM awards.