Logo India

SOUTHERN AIR COMMAND Southern Air Command with its headquarters at Trivandrum was born on July 19, 1984 out of the changed geopolitical situation around southern peninsula since early eighties super power rivalry in Indian ocean, attempts to destabilise the littoral states and continued ethnic problems in Sri Lanka compelled the defence planners to look afresh the defence requirements of peninsular India in order to effectively defend the Island territories and protect our exclusive economic zones extending deep into the oceans. The need was felt to establish a full fledged Operational Air Command covering the geopolitical area of peninsular India extending to 18 deg N including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep islands in the Arabian sea. Accordingly, on July 20, 1984, Smt. lndira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India inaugurated the Headquarters Southern Air Command at Trivandrum at ‘Belhaven Palace’, an old palace of Maharaja of Travancor

SOUTHERN COMMAND The Southern Command , India’s oldest field army has a history spanning over two centuries. Its origin, however, can be traced even earlier to the era of the East India Company in India in the 17th century and the evolution of the Presidency Armies. Pune was established as a military station in the early 1800s and has been synonymous with the Command since then. The Command came into existence in 1895. Today, the Southern Command comprises of its two Corps, 12 and 21 located at Jodhpur and Bhopal. The Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa Area, with its headquarter at Mumbai and the Andhra, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala Area with its headquarter at Chennai also come within its ambit. Southern Command encompasses nine States and four Union Territories covering nearly forty percent of the Country. This includes an area of about 24,07,315 square kilometers. Southern Command is also the only tri-service theatre. It has within its geographical area the Western,