Commander of the Air Force (Sri Lanka)

The Commander of the Air Force is the professional head of the Sri Lanka Air Force. The current Commander of the Air Force is Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinghala from June 15, 2015. It is a position comparable to that of Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Air Force.

In the recent past all serving air force commanders have been of the rank of Air Marshal, promoted to the Honorary rank of Air Chief Marshal when retiring or promoted to Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). His deputy is the Chief of Staff of the air force.

List of Commanders

An Air marshal's star plate is used by the Commander of the Air Force,Since all recently serving Air Force commanders where of the rank of Air marshal.
No. Portrait Rank Name Appointment Left Office Unit Decorations
1 Air Commodore Graham Bladon 5 May 1950 24 October 1958 CBE
2 Air Vice Marshal John Barker 24 October 1958 12 November 1962 CB, CBE, DFC
3 Air Vice Marshal Rohan Amerasekera 12 November 1962 31 December 1970 No. 2 Squadron SLAF DFC & BAR
4 Air Chief Marshal Deshamanya Paddy Mendis 1 January 1971 1 November 1976 No. 2 Squadron SLAF
No. 5 Squadron SLAF 		IDC, PSC, FBIM QFI
5 Air Chief Marshal Harry Goonatilake 1 November 1976 30 April 1981 No. 2 Squadron SLAF USP
6 Air Chief Marshal Dick Perera 1 May 1981 30 April 1985 No. 2 Squadron SLAF VSV, NDC, PSC
7 Air Chief Marshal Andibuduge Fernando 1 May 1985 31 July 1990 No. 4 Squadron SLAF VSV, NDC, PSC
8 Air Chief Marshal Makalandage Gunawardena 1 August 1990 16 February 1994 No. 2 Squadron SLAF VSV, NDC, PSC
9 Air Chief Marshal Oliver Ranasinghe 17 February 1994 5 March 1998 No. 4 Squadron SLAF RWP, VSV, USP, NDC, PSC
10 Air Chief Marshal Jayalath Weerakkody 6 March 1998 15 July 2002 No. 2 Squadron SLAF
No. 4 Squadron SLAF 		RWP, VSV, USP, NDC, PSC, QFI
11 Air Chief Marshal Donald Perera 16 July 2002 11 June 2006 No. 2 Squadron SLAF VSV, USP, NDC, PSC
12 Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonatilake 11 June 2006 27 February 2011 No. 4 Squadron SLAF RWP & BAR, VSV, USP, NDC, PSC
13 Air Chief Marshal Harsha Abeywickrama 27 February 2011 28 February 2014 No. 5 Squadron SLAF RWP & BAR, RSP, VSV, USP, RCDS, PSC, QFI
14 Air Chief Marshal Kolitha Gunathilake 28 February 2014 15 June 2015 No. 2 Squadron SLAF RWP & BAR, RSP, VSV, USP, NDC, PSC, QFI
15 Air Marshal Gagan Pulasthi Bulathsinghala 16 June 2015 Present No. 4 Squadron SLAF RWP, RSP, USP, NDC, PSC

Notes

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, December 14, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.