Training Command (India)

Training Command Indian Air Force
Emblem of the Air Training Command
Founded	22 July 1949
Country	India
Branch	Indian Air Force
Type	Operational Air Command
Role	Flying and ground training.
Headquarters	Bangalore, Karnataka
Mottos	Sanskrit: Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya "From darkness, lead us unto Light"
Commanders
Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief	Air Marshal Seethepalli Shrinivas, AVSM, VSM

Training Command is the Indian Air Force's command responsible for flying and ground training.

In the 1930s, the approaching threat and later advent of World War II and the leaning of Japan towards the Axis powers, the latter was considered as a potential enemy. Therefore, need was felt to make IAF a self-supporting force for the South Eastern Theatre of war. This led to the rapid expansion of the IAF. A target was fixed of 10 IAF Squadrons. With this expansion, the requirement of pilots and technical personnel increased. For the training of technical personnel, a technical training school was set up at Ambala in 1940.

In a 1949 reorganisation of the Indian Air Force, while frontline units were put under the Operations Command, all the training institutions were placed under the jurisdiction of the Training Command.¹

Among Training Command's units is the Navigation Training School at Begumpet Air Force Station, Hyderabad. It flies the BAe HS. 748,² the Basic Flying Training School and the Air Force Administrative College. The Hawk Operational Training Squadron and Weapon System Operators' School are located at Bidar Air Force Station which flows the Hawk Mk 132 trainer aircraft.

Before and during the early years of Training Command’s establishment, the Indian Air Force relied on British-origin trainer aircraft such as the de Havilland Tiger Moth, Percival Prentice, and the North American Harvard to train successive batches of pilots. These aircraft formed the bedrock of IAF’s basic and advanced flight training from the 1930s through the 1950s, before being gradually replaced by indigenous and jet-powered platforms. A detailed account of this evolution has been documented in:³