On the eve of the 78th Independence Day, the Government of India has released the names of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel to be honoured with the nation’s highest wartime and peacetime gallantry awards, recognising extraordinary courage, leadership, and service in operations. The honours span from the prestigious Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal to Mention-in-Despatches, reflecting the breadth of commitment across ranks and specialisations.
Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal
The highest wartime distinguished service honour has been awarded to Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari, PVSM, AVSM, VM; Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor, PVSM, AVSM, VM; Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra, AVSM, VSM; and Air Marshal Awadhesh Kumar Bharti, AVSM, VM — all from the flying branch.
Uttam Yudh Seva Medal
Recipients include Air Marshal Manish Khanna, AVSM, VM; Air Marshal Praveen Keshav Vohra, AVSM, VM; Air Commodore Ajay Kumar Chaudhary, VM; Air Commodore Prabhat Malik, VM; and Group Captain Kamran Nazeer.
Vir Chakra
Awarded to Group Captain Ranjeet Singh Sidhu; Group Captain Manish Arora, SC; Group Captain Animesh Patni; Group Captain Kunal Kalra; Wing Commander Joy Chandra; Squadron Leader Sarthak Kumar; Squadron Leader Siddhant Singh; Squadron Leader Rizwan Malik; and Flight Lieutenant Aarshveer Singh Thakur.
Shaurya Chakra
Conferred on Wing Commander Abhimanyu Singh.
Yudh Seva Medal
Awarded to Air Vice Marshal Joseph Suares, VM; Air Vice Marshal Prajual Singh, VM; Air Commodore Shashi Kant; Air Commodore Sagar Singh Rawat, VM; Air Commodore Ashok Raj Thakur, VM; Air Commodore Pradeep Batra; Air Commodore Kanwal Preet Singh Dham, VM; Air Commodore Devashish Kukreti, VM; Air Commodore Rohit Kapil, VM; Group Captain Alok Kumar Sharma; Group Captain Vikas Verma, VM; Group Captain Ankit Mehrotra, VM; and Wing Commander Gobind Singh.
Vayu Sena Medal (Gallantry)
Awarded to Group Captain Ankur Hakim; Group Captain Manav Bhatia; Group Captain Yasir Faruqi; Group Captain Varun Bhoj; Group Captain Anuraj Singh Minhas; Group Captain Omar Browne, VM; Group Captain Deepak Chauhan; Group Captain Kunal Vishwas Shimpi; Wing Commander Rupak Roy; Wing Commander Devendra Babasaheb Autade; Wing Commander Mayank Paliwal; Wing Commander Deepak Dogra; Wing Commander Ravinder Kumar; Wing Commander Adarsh Gupta; Wing Commander Abhay Singh Bhadoria; Wing Commander Amandeep Singh Dihot; Squadron Leader Kaustubh Nalawade; Squadron Leader Mihir Vivek Chaudhari; Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma; Squadron Leader Malapati NV Naveen Kumar; Squadron Leader Shubham Sharma; Squadron Leader Aman Singh; Squadron Leader Gaurav Khokher; Flight Lieutenant A Naveen Chandar; Sergeant Surendra Kumar; Corporal Varunkumar S.
Mention-in-Despatches (Op Sindoor)
Notable awardees include Group Captain Sumit Prasad; Group Captain Vipin Rehani; Group Captain Mohan Namdeo; Group Captain Samar Veer Saharan, VSM; Group Captain Prashant Arora, VSM; Group Captain Sanjeev Rao; Group Captain Tara Dutt Karnataka; Group Captain Ritam Kumar, VM; Group Captain Sunil Kumar Deshwal; Group Captain S Parameswaran; Group Captain Parijat Saurabh, VM; Group Captain Charles Shorab Simon; Group Captain Vishwas Ashok Jamkar; Group Captain Laxman Singh Charan; Group Captain Jijo Jose Ovelil, VM; Group Captain Parijat Jha; Group Captain Tanmay Khare; Group Captain P Sajini; Group Captain Rajesh Agarwal, VM; Group Captain Yathartha Johri; Group Captain C Clement Chelliah Anantharaj; Group Captain Saurabh Karmakar; Group Captain Rakesh Kumar Yadav; Group Captain Gurinder Singh; Group Captain Sameep Nijhawan; Group Captain Chikkanayaknahalli Jagadeesh Chethan; Group Captain Gaurav Kundalia; Group Captain Vipul Kumar; Group Captain Danpreet Paul Singh Bali; Group Captain Sushil Kumar; Group Captain Abhishek Raina; Group Captain Sameer Yadav; Group Captain Abhishek Tripathi; Group Captain Gowdhaman Karthikeyan; Group Captain Amol Sudhir Kelkar; Group Captain Sachin Kumar; Group Captain Gunadnya Ramesh Kharche, SC; Group Captain Bharat Malhotra; Group Captain Inderjeet Singh; Group Captain Manish Joshi; Group Captain Sahil Kapoor; Wing Commander Pankaj Pant; Wing Commander Somraj Mitra; Wing Commander Bhaskar Aaruni; Wing Commander Ankur Dagar; Wing Commander Neeraj Singh; Wing Commander Rajat Devendra Gupta; Wing Commander Maria Ismenia Sanchia Pereira; Wing Commander Chintamani Telang; Wing Commander Milind Londhe; Wing Commander Keshav Sharma; Wing Commander Ashutosh Bhadola; Wing Commander Jugal Kishor Lohani; Wing Commander Suvojit Dutta; Wing Commander Manish Kumar Singh; Wing Commander Shree Krishna; Wing Commander Shrey Tomar, VM; Wing Commander Joyanta Mukherjee; Wing Commander Sandeep Waila; Wing Commander Avdesh Tripathi; Wing Commander Prashant Kondal; Wing Commander Satender Kumar Barar; Wing Commander Saurabh Kumar; Wing Commander Md Rakibur Mirza; Wing Commander Kaushal Kumar Jha; Wing Commander Nitin Sehra; Wing Commander Manoj Yadav; Wing Commander Yathish N; Wing Commander Sourabh Suryakant Ambure; Wing Commander Danish Handa; Wing Commander Raveesh Vashisht; Wing Commander Sunil Kumar; Wing Commander Deepak Upadhyay; Wing Commander Hareen Mukesh Joshi; Wing Commander Priti Yadav; Wing Commander Dhann Singh; Wing Commander Retaish Wali; Wing Commander Poonam Gulia; Squadron Leader Dhruv Trehan; Squadron Leader Amol Vijay Shitole; Squadron Leader Manoj Kumar; Squadron Leader K Muthamil Selvan; Squadron Leader Sanket Shrikant Pande; Squadron Leader Sanjay Kumar Kalkhuriya; Squadron Leader Nikhil Sanjay Mahagaonkar; Squadron Leader Ranmany Ranjan Ghosh; Squadron Leader Ankita Singh; Squadron Leader Sumangla Sharma; Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh; Squadron Leader Swapnika Saxena; Squadron Leader Kirti Pandey; Squadron Leader Sehej Veer Singh Sidhu; Squadron Leader Sudhir Kumar; Squadron Leader Kunal Verma; Squadron Leader Brijraj Singh Rathore; Squadron Leader Bendhi Rohan Reddy; Squadron Leader Anup Omprakash Singh; Squadron Leader Nishant Srivastava; Squadron Leader Naman Bhatt; Squadron Leader Khsitij Singh Sehlot; Squadron Leader Anoop Rawat; Squadron Leader Kartik Menon; Squadron Leader Amol Garg; Squadron Leader Kaustubh Sandip Muley; Squadron Leader Dharmadhikari Saurabh Shrirang; Squadron Leader Sahil Sahu; Squadron Leader Harpreet Singh; Flight Lieutenant Iqbal Singh Gill; Flight Lieutenant Samarth Shukla; Flight Lieutenant Bichkar Shubham Santosh; Flight Lieutenant Digvijay Charak; Flight Lieutenant Ankit Sharma; Flight Lieutenant Akash Makarand Bibikar; Flight Lieutenant Vikram Jaywant; Flight Lieutenant Mihir Singh; Flight Lieutenant Hrithik Gaur; Flight Lieutenant Saanand Dudpuri; Flight Lieutenant Shakti Panchal; Flight Lieutenant Ankit Thapa; Flight Lieutenant Dhruv Bhardwaj; Flight Lieutenant Ashish Kumar; Flight Lieutenant Ravi Kumar; Flight Lieutenant Ananya Sharma; Flight Lieutenant Anurag Kushwaha; Flight Lieutenant Swastika Jamwal; Flight Lieutenant Anish Singh Sisodiya; Flying Officer Pranav Bellur; Flying Officer Abhishek Suryawanshi; Master Warrant Officer Girish Kumar Jha; Master Warrant Officer Mohan Kishor Thakur; Warrant Officer Suresh Kumar M P; Warrant Officer Rajesh Prasad Gupta; Warrant Officer Krishna Moorthy Poornaiyan; Junior Warrant Officer Krishna Kumar Yadav; Junior Warrant Officer Suneesh Ambat; Junior Warrant Officer Naresh Kumar; Junior Warrant Officer Santosh Kumar; Junior Warrant Officer Deepak Kumar; Junior Warrant Officer Rajesh Potta; Junior Warrant Officer Bharat Singh Bhakuni; Sergeant Nilesh Kumar; Sergeant Zubair Ahmad Khan; Sergeant Bhale Singh (Retd); Sergeant Ramjeewan Choudhary; Sergeant Prateek Singh; Sergeant Deepak Singh Rawat; Sergeant Deepak Kumar; Sergeant Manoj Kumar Yadav; Sergeant Renju PR; Sergeant Abhishek Kumar; Sergeant Raghvendra Tiwari; Sergeant Sorabh Yadav; Sergeant Pravesh Yadav; Sergeant Karamavir; Sergeant Rahul Kumar Singh; Sergeant Deepak Sharma; Sergeant Suresh Vishnoi; Sergeant Pawan Kumar Singh; Corporal Ankit Shukla; Corporal Jahid Beg; Corporal Vishal Kumar Pandey; Sepoy Mohd Zabair.
Mention-in-Despatches (Miscellaneous)
Group Captain Sagili Sai Kiran; Wing Commander Girish Rajkumar Boldara; Wing Commander Mayank Kukreti; Wing Commander Deepak Prasad; and Squadron Leader Shashank.
These awards showcase the courage, skill, and dedication of the Indian Air Force in safeguarding national security and honouring the highest traditions of military service.