Birender Singh Dhanoa Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Other Name	B. S. Dhanoa
Nickname	Tony
Profession	Retired Indian Air Force Officer
Physical Stats
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Salt & Pepper
Military service
Major Designation(s)	• 31 May 2015-31 December 2016: 40th Vice Chief of the Air Staff • 31 December 2016-30 September 2019: 22nd Chief of the Air Staff • 31 May 2019-27 September 2019: 56th Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee
Branch/service	Indian Air Force
Years of service	June 1978-30 September 2019
Unit	No. 17 Squadron
Commands	• Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee • Chief of the Air Staff • South Western Air Command
Battles/wars	• Kargil War • Balakot Airstrike
Service number	15405
Awards	• Param Vishisht Seva Medal (2016) • Appointed as Honorary ADC to the President of India (2015) • Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (2015) • Yudh Seva Medal (1999) • Vayu Sena Medal (1999)
Personal Life
Date of Birth	7 September 1957 (Saturday)
Age (as of 2025)	68 Years
Birthplace	Deoghar, Bihar, India
Zodiac sign	Virgo
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Deoghar, Bihar
School	St. Xavier's School, Ranchi, Jharkhand
College/University	• St. George's College, Mussoorie • Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun • National Defence Academy, Pune, Maharashtra • Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Tamil Nadu, India
Educational Qualification(s)	• Graduation from St. George's College, Mussoorie (1968 to 1969) • Graduation from National Defence Academy, Pune • Staff course at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Tamil Nadu (1992)
Religion	Sikhism
Caste	Jat
Social Media	Instagram
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Married
Family
Wife/Spouse	Kamalpreet Kaur Dhanoa
Children	Son- Jasman
Parents	Father- Sorain Singh (retired IAS officer) Mother- Sukhdev Kaur (homemaker)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Birender Singh Dhanoa

• Birender Singh Dhanoa’s grandfather, Capt. Sant Singh, served as a captain in the British Indian Army and fought in World War II.

• His ancestral village is Gharuan, District SAS Nagar (Mohali), Punjab, India.

• Dhanoa’s father, Sorain Singh, was an IAS officer. During the 1980s, Sorain served as the Chief Secretary of the governments of Punjab and Bihar. Later, he served as an advisor to the Governor of Punjab and as an Election Commissioner of India.

• In June 1978, Birender Singh Dhanoa was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force.

• After that, he flew many types of fighter aircrafts, such as the HJT-16 Kiran, MiG-21, SEPECAT Jaguar, MiG-29, and Su-30MKI.

• He has completed more than 3,000 hours of fighter flying with a clean safety record.

• He has served as a qualified Cat ‘A’ Flying Instructor.

• In 1999, Birender Singh Dhanoa served as the Commanding Officer of a frontline ground-attack fighter squadron during the Kargil War.

• Under his leadership, the squadron invented new methods of night bombing at high altitudes. These methods had never been used before.

• After that, his squadron was named the best fighter squadron of HQ WAC.

• He was then honoured with the Yudh Seva Medal (YSM) and Vayu Sena Medal (VM) for his brave actions during the war.

• He then served as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of South Western Air Command from 1 November 2014 to 31 May 2015.

• Birender Singh Dhanoa also served as a Senior Air Instructor and Chief Air Instructor at the Defense Services Staff College in Wellington.
  

  An old picture of Birender Singh Dhanoa

• He also led an Indian Air Force Training Team abroad.

• On 1 June 2015, he was appointed as the Vice Chief of the Air Staff at Air Headquarters.

• On 17 December 2016, the Government of India appointed him as the Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Force.

• During his entire military career, he held many operational and administrative posts, including Director of the Targeting Cell at Air Headquarters, Director of Fighter Operations and War Planning at Headquarters Western Air Command, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Intelligence) at Air Headquarters, and Senior Air Staff Officer of Eastern and Western Air Command.
  

  Birender Singh Dhanoa while commanding his unit

• From 17 July to 20 July 2017, Birender Singh Dhanoa had a bilateral visit as CAS to France. There, he held talks with senior military officials of the French Armed Forces and representatives of the military aviation industry.

• He then visited the headquarters of the French Air Force, some operational air bases, and the Indian Rafale PMT infrastructure.

• During his bilateral visit as CAS to Australia, he held talks with senior officials of the Royal Australian Air Force and also visited the headquarters of the Royal Australian Air Force and some operational air bases from 19 September to 22 September 2017.
  

  B. S. Dhanoa Subhash Bhamre, Sanjay Mitra, and Veena Prasad at the 271st Annual Day celebrations of Defense Accounts Department (DAD)

• He then visited the United States, where he attended and spoke at the Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium in Hawaii from 26 September to 28 September 2017.

• From 30 October to 3 November 2017, during his bilateral visit as CAS to Vietnam, he held talks with senior military officials of the Vietnam People’s Air Force and Air Defence (VPAF).

• During this period, he also visited the VPAF headquarters and some operational air bases.
  

  Birender Singh Dhanoa during a foreign visit

• During his bilateral visit as CAS to Sri Lanka, he reviewed the commissioning ceremony, wing awards, and passing-out parade at the Sri Lankan Air Force Academy from 11 December to 14 December 2017.

• Birender Singh Dhanoa then visited Israel as CAS and attended the 70th anniversary celebration of the Israeli Air Force, met the chiefs and senior commanders of several air forces, and visited some operational air bases from 21 May to 24 May 2018.

• From 4 June to 7 June 2018, during his bilateral visit to Brazil, he met senior government and military officials and visited operational and training units.
  

  Birender Singh Dhanoa speaking during a conference

• During his bilateral visit as CAS to the United Kingdom, he attended the RAF Annual Air Power Conference and the Royal International Air Tattoo from 9 July to 15 July 2018.

• He then visited Myanmar and Malaysia, where he met senior officials and visited operational establishments from 3 September to 8 September 2018.
  

  Birender Singh Dhanoa during his visit to Malaysia

• On 26 August 2019, he went to Thailand, where he represented India at the 2019 Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defense (CHOD) Conference in Bangkok. The visited ended on 28 August 2019.

• In 2019, during the Balakot airstrikes, Birender Singh Dhanoa planned and supervised the pre-dawn retaliatory strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammed terror facilities in Balakot. It was the first time since the 1971 war that the Indian Air Force crossed the Line of Control to carry out an airstrike.

• Before retiring, he flew his final ceremonial fighter jet sortie in a MiG-21 with Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman at Pathankot, Punjab, India.
  

  Birender Singh Dhanoa after flying his final ceremonial fighter jet sortie in a MiG-21 with Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman at Pathankot, Punjab, India

• In July 2021, he started serving as a non-executive and independent director at Hero MotoCorp Limited.

• In 2026, he made headlines when his wartime leadership was portrayed by actor Jimmy Shergill in the web series Operation Safed Sagar, which streamed on Netflix.
  

  Jimmy Shergill on the poster of the web series Operation Safed Sagar