Vice Chief of the Army Staff (India)

Not to be confused with Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (India).

The Vice Chief of the Army Staff (VCOAS) is a statutory position in the Indian Armed Forces usually held by a three star lieutenant general. As the second highest ranking officer to serve in the Indian Army, the VCOAS is the deputy professional head of the Indian Army and a senior adviser to the Minister of Defence. The office holder is usually the second most senior army officer unless the Chief of Defence is an army officer.

Vice Chief of the Army Staff
Flag of the Vice Chief of the Army Staff
Incumbent Lieutenant General M. V. Suchindra Kumar AVSM YSM** VSM since 1 March 2023
Indian Army
Status	Second in command
Abbreviation	VCOAS
Reports to	Chief of the Army Staff
Seat	Army HQ, New Delhi
Appointer	ACC
Constituting instrument	Army Act, 1950 (Act No. 46 of 1950)
Formation	15 January 1965; 58 years ago (1965-01-15)
First holder	P. P. Kumaramangalam

Eleven of the forty Vice Chiefs have gone on to head the Indian Army as the Chief of the Army Staff.

The current VCOAS is Lieutenant General M. V. Suchindra Kumar who assumed the office on 1 March 2023.^[1] Lt. Gen. Raju's appointment is one of rare instances where an officer has been promoted as Vice Chief without heading any of the Army’s regional commands.^[2]

History

In the British Indian Army, the Chief of the General Staff (CGS) assisted the Commander-in-Chief, India.

After the Independence, the CGS remained the number two officer in the Indian Army below the Commander-in-Chief, India. and later the Chief of Army Staff. In January 1959, the post of Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCOAS) was created to replace the CGS at the Army HQ. The DCOAS was the second-in-command and was equivalent to an Army Commander (GOC-in-C).

In January 1965, the CGS post became the Vice Chief of the Army Staff, with the DCOAS becoming a PSO appointment.^[3][4]

Lieutenant General P.P. Kumaramangalam took over as the first VCOAS.

Order of Precedence

The VCOAS ranks at No. 23 on the Indian order of precedence, along with the Vice Chiefs of Staff of the Indian Navy and Indian Air Force and the Army Commanders (GOC-in-C), Naval Commanders (FOC-in-C) and Air Commanders (AOC-in-C).^[5]

The VCOAS is at the Apex Pay grade (Grade 17), with a monthly pay of ₹225,000 (US$3,200).^[6]

Appointment

The Vice Chief of Army staff is appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, from among the senior general officers of the Army. Since the appointment is of Commander-in-Chief grade, the appointees are usually one of the Army Commanders of the seven commands.

Unlike the Chief of Army Staff, there is no fixed term nor term limit to the position of the VCOAS, although most of those appointed to the office have typically served for two or three year tenures.

Appointees

The following table chronicles the appointees to the office of the Vice Chief of the Army Staff.

S.No.	Portrait	Name	Assumed office	Left office	Unit of Commission	COAS	Ref
1		Lieutenant General Paramsiva Prabhakar Kumaramangalam, DSO MBE^[1]	15 January 1965	7 June 1966	Regiment of Artillery	Gen. J. N. Chaudhuri	^[7]^[8]
2		Lieutenant General Kashmir Singh Katoch, MC	8 June 1966	22 November 1970	East Surrey Regiment	Gen. Kumaramangalam	^[9]
						Gen. Manekshaw
3		Lieutenant General Har Prasad, PVSM	23 November 1970	31 October 1973	3rd Cavalry		^[10]
						Gen. Bewoor
4		Lieutenant General M. L. Thapan, PVSM	1 November 1973	31 July 1974	Jat Regiment		^[11]
5		Lieutenant General Naveen Chand Rawlley, PVSM AVSM MC	1 August 1974	31 December 1975	12th Frontier Force		^[12]
						Gen. Raina
6		Lieutenant General A. M. Vohra, PVSM	1 January 1976	19 January 1977	3rd Gorkha Rifles		^[13]
7		Lieutenant General Om Prakash Malhotra, PVSM^[2]	20 January 1977	31 May 1978	Regiment of Artillery		^[14]
8		Lieutenant General Stanley Leslie Menezes, PVSM SC	1 July 1978	31 January 1980	The Grenadiers	Gen. Malhotra	^[15]^[16]
9		Lieutenant General Jaswant Singh, PVSM AVSM	1 February 1980	6 July 1980	Punjab Regiment
10		Lieutenant General Adi Meherji Sethna, PVSM AVSM	7 July 1980	31 December 1982	6th Rajputana Rifles		^[17]
						Gen. Krishna Rao
11		Lieutenant General Srinivas Kumar Sinha, PVSM	1 January 1983	1 June 1983	Jat Regiment		^[18]^[19]^[20]
12		Lieutenant General Gajendra Singh Rawat, PVSM AVSM	5 August 1983	31 December 1984	5th Gorkha Rifles (FF)	Gen. Vaidya	^[21]^[22]
13		Lieutenant General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, PVSM^[3]	13 February 1985	31 January 1986	2 Mahar Regiment		^[23]^[24]
14		Lieutenant General K. K. Hazari, PVSM AVSM	1 February 1986	31 May 1987	Regiment of Artillery	Gen. Sundarji
15		Lieutenant General J. K. Puri, PVSM AVSM	1 June 1987	31 August 1987	Regiment of Artillery		^[25]
16		Lieutenant General Sunith Francis Rodrigues, PVSM AVSM^[4]	1 November 1987	20 April 1989	Regiment of Artillery		^[26]
						Gen. Sharma
17		Lieutenant General V. K. Sood, PVSM AVSM	15 May 1989	29 February 1992	Dogra Regiment		^[27]
						Gen. Rodrigues
18		Lieutenant General Vijai Singh, PVSM	1 March 1992	30 June 1993	8th Light Cavalry		^[28]
19		Lieutenant General Surinder Nath, PVSM AVSM	1 July 1993	30 June 1995	Regiment of Artillery	Gen. Joshi
						Gen. S. R. Chowdhary
20		Lieutenant General M. L. Dar, PVSM AVSM	1 July 1995	31 July 1996	Poona Horse		^[29]
21		Lieutenant General Ved Prakash Malik, PVSM AVSM^[5]	1 August 1996	30 September 1997	Sikh Light Infantry
22		Lieutenant General Chandra Shekhar, PVSM AVSM ADC	1 October 1997	30 September 2000	4th Gorkha Rifles	Gen. Malik	^[30]
23		Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi, PVSM AVSM VSM	1 October 2000	30 September 2001	Maratha Light Infantry	Gen. Padmanabhan	^[31]^[32]
24		Lieutenant General Nirmal Chand Vij, PVSM UYSM AVSM^[6]	1 October 2001	31 December 2002	Dogra Regiment		^[33]
25		Lieutenant General Shantonu Choudhry, PVSM AVSM VSM	1 January 2003	31 December 2004	Regiment of Artillery	Gen. Vij	^[34]^[35]
26		Lieutenant General Bhupinder Singh Thakur, PVSM AVSM	15 January 2005	30 September 2005	Central India Horse		^[36]^[37]
						Gen. J. J. Singh
27		Lieutenant General S. Pattabhiraman, PVSM AVSM SM VSM	1 October 2005	31 December 2006	Bombay Sappers		^[38]^[39]
28		Lieutenant General Deepak Kapoor, PVSM AVSM SM VSM ADC^[7]	1 January 2007	30 September 2007	Regiment of Artillery		^[40]^[41]
29		Lieutenant General Milan Lalitkumar Naidu, PVSM AVSM YSM	1 October 2007	31 December 2008	Rajput Regiment	Gen. Kapoor	^[42]^[43]^[44]
30		Lieutenant General Noble Thamburaj, PVSM SM	1 January 2008	30 September 2009	Bombay Sappers		^[45]^[46]^[47]
31		Lieutenant General Prabodh Chandra Bhardwaj, PVSM AVSM VrC SC VSM	1 October 2009	30 November 2010	Parachute Regiment		^[48]^[49]^[50]
						Gen. V. K. Singh
32		Lieutenant General Arvinder Singh Lamba, PVSM AVSM	6 December 2010	30 September 2011	Regiment of Artillery		^[51]^[52]
33		Lieutenant General Sri Krishna Singh PVSM UYSM AVSM	1 October 2011	31 December 2013	8th Gorkha Rifles		^[53]
						Gen. Bikram Singh
34		Lieutenant General Dalbir Singh Suhag, PVSM UYSM AVSM VSM ADC^[8]	1 January 2014	31 July 2014	5th Gorkha Rifles (FF)		^[54]
35		Lieutenant General Philip Campose, PVSM AVSM VSM	1 August 2014	31 July 2015	9th Gorkha Rifles	Gen. Dalbir Singh	^[55]^[56]
36		Lieutenant General Man Mohan Singh Rai, PVSM AVSM VSM	1 August 2015	31 July 2016	Bombay Sappers		^[57]
37		Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat, PVSM UYSM AVSM YSM SM VSM ADC^[9]	1 September 2016	31 December 2016	11th Gorkha Rifles		^[58]
38		Lieutenant General Sarath Chand, PVSM UYSM AVSM VSM	13 January 2017	31 May 2018	Garhwal Rifles	Gen. Rawat	^[59]
39		Lieutenant General Devraj Anbu, PVSM UYSM AVSM YSM SM ADC	1 June 2018	31 August 2019	Sikh Light Infantry		^[60]
40		Lieutenant General Manoj Mukund Naravane, PVSM AVSM SM VSM ADC^[10]	1 September 2019	30 December 2019	Sikh Light Infantry		^[61]
41		Lieutenant General Satinder Kumar Saini, PVSM AVSM YSM VSM ADC	25 January 2020	31 January 2021	Jat Regiment	Gen. Naravane	^[62]
42		Lieutenant General Chandi Prasad Mohanty, PVSM AVSM SM VSM	1 February 2021	31 January 2022	Rajput Regiment		^[63]
43		Lieutenant General Manoj Pande, PVSM AVSM VSM^[11]	1 February 2022	30 April 2022	Bombay Sappers		^[64]
44		Lieutenant General Baggavalli Somashekar Raju, UYSM AVSM YSM	1 May 2022	28 February 2023	Jat Regiment	Gen. Pande	^[1]
45		Lieutenant General M. V. Suchindra Kumar, AVSM YSM** VSM	1 March 2023	Present	Assam Regiment

See also

• Chief of the Army Staff
• Vice Chief of the Naval Staff
• Vice Chief of the Air Staff

Notes

1.^ Later promoted to the post of General and the Chief of Army Staff.

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