NEW DELHI: Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, who flew indigenous Tejas fighter prototypes as a young test pilot and then later led the commercial negotiations for the French Rafale jets as the deputy chief, will be the 26th chief of the Indian Air Force .

The government on Thursday announced Bhadauria, the vice chief at present, will succeed Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa when he retires on September 30. Bhadauria, who has clocked over 4,250 hours of flying experience on 26 types of fighters and transport aircraft, was initially not in the reckoning since he was also slated to superannuate on September 30 after turning 60 this month.

But now, he will have a two-year tenure at the IAF’s helm because a military chief can serve up to the age of 62 or for three years, whichever is earlier, while Air Marshals like Lt-Generals in the Army and Vice Admirals in Navy retire at 60.

Sources said Bhadauria’s name was not part of the file initially sent to the PMO for clearance, with Southern Command chief Air Marshal Balakrishnan Suresh and Western Command chief Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar being considered as the two main contenders.

“But the PMO later summoned the records of Bhadauria as well. There is a precedent. In 1991, the then IAF vice chief N C Suri succeeded S K Mehra as the chief, though both were retiring on July 31 (Mehra controversially demitted office in the forenoon to enable Suri to take over),” said a source.

The NDA government has firmly cast aside the seniority principle in the hierarchy-conscious armed forces by appointing General Bipin Rawat as Army chief in December 2016 and Admiral Karambir Singh as Navy chief in May this year by superseding officers’ senior to them. The government contends merit, and not just seniority, will be considered in “deep selection” of top military officers, as was reported by TOI earlier.

Bhadauria, who won the coveted ‘Sword of Honour’ in the National Defence Academy, of course, is senior to the other Air Marshals who were in the zone of consideration. He was commissioned in the fighter stream of IAF in June 1980, while it was December 1980 for Suresh and June 1981 for Nambiar.

Bhadauria also led the commercial negotiations that finally led to the Rs 59,000 crore deal for 36 multi-role Rafale jets in September 2016, which emerged as a major bone of contention between BJP and Congress in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.

His initials, incidentally, are featured on the tail numbers of the Rafale trainer jets to mark his contribution to the acquisition project. The first of the 36 Rafales will be formally handed over to India in Rajnath Singh’s presence in France on October 8. But the first four jets will actually touch down in Ambala only in May next year after training of the “main” induction team of around 10 pilots, 10 flight engineers and 40 technicians in France.

With the “unique distinction” of being “an experimental test pilot, a Cat ‘A’ qualified flying instructor and a pilot attack instructor”, Bhadauria was extensively involved in the initial prototype flight tests of the Tejas. Defence minister Rajnath Singh flew a sortie in a twin-seat Tejas at Bengaluru on Thursday, even as IAF is set to order 83 more of them after inking the contracts for the first 40.

The Air Marshal has held a number of command and staff appointments during his long tenure, including the command of a Jaguar fighter squadron, air attaché at the Indian embassy in Moscow, deputy chief at the Air HQs, and the air officer commanding-in-chief of Southern Air Command and the Training Command.

