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Vice Chief of the Army Staff
Flag of the Vice Chief of the Army Staff
Incumbent Lieutenant General N. S. Raja Subramani PVSM AVSM SM VSM since 30 June 2024
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; 59 years ago (1965-01-15)
First holder	P. P. Kumaramangalam

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.

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 N. S. Raja Subramani who assumed the office on 1st July 2024.

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.

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).

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

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	15 January 1965	7 June 1966	Regiment of Artillery	Gen. J. N. Chaudhuri
2		Lieutenant General Kashmir Singh Katoch, MC	8 June 1966	22 November 1970	East Surrey Regiment	Gen. Kumaramangalam
						Gen. Manekshaw
3		Lieutenant General Har Prasad, PVSM	23 November 1970	31 October 1973	3rd Cavalry
						Gen. Bewoor
4		Lieutenant General Mohan Lal Thapan, PVSM	1 November 1973	31 July 1974	Jat Regiment
5		Lieutenant General Naveen Chand Rawlley, PVSM AVSM MC	1 August 1974	31 December 1975	12th Frontier Force
						Gen. Raina
6		Lieutenant General A. M. Vohra, PVSM	1 January 1976	19 January 1977	3rd Gorkha Rifles
7		Lieutenant General Om Prakash Malhotra, PVSM	20 January 1977	31 May 1978	Regiment of Artillery
8		Lieutenant General Stanley Leslie Menezes, PVSM SC	1 July 1978	31 January 1980	The Grenadiers	Gen. Malhotra
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
						Gen. Krishna Rao
11		Lieutenant General Srinivas Kumar Sinha, PVSM	1 January 1983	1 June 1983	Jat Regiment
12		Lieutenant General Gajendra Singh Rawat, PVSM AVSM	5 August 1983	31 December 1984	5th Gorkha Rifles (FF)	Gen. Vaidya
13		Lieutenant General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, PVSM	13 February 1985	31 January 1986	2 Mahar Regiment
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
16		Lieutenant General Sunith Francis Rodrigues, PVSM AVSM	1 November 1987	20 April 1989	Regiment of Artillery
						Gen. Sharma
17		Lieutenant General V. K. Sood, PVSM AVSM	15 May 1989	29 February 1992	Dogra Regiment
						Gen. Rodrigues
18		Lieutenant General Vijai Singh, PVSM	1 March 1992	30 June 1993	8th Light Cavalry
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	17th Horse (Poona Horse)
21		Lieutenant General Ved Prakash Malik, PVSM AVSM	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
23		Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi, PVSM AVSM VSM	1 October 2000	30 September 2001	Maratha Light Infantry	Gen. Padmanabhan
24		Lieutenant General Nirmal Chand Vij, PVSM UYSM AVSM	1 October 2001	31 December 2002	Dogra Regiment
25		Lieutenant General Shantonu Choudhry, PVSM AVSM VSM	1 January 2003	31 December 2004	Regiment of Artillery	Gen. Vij
26		Lieutenant General Bhupinder Singh Thakur, PVSM AVSM	15 January 2005	30 September 2005	Central India Horse
						Gen. J. J. Singh
27		Lieutenant General S. Pattabhiraman, PVSM AVSM SM VSM	1 October 2005	31 December 2006	Bombay Sappers
28		Lieutenant General Deepak Kapoor, PVSM AVSM SM VSM ADC	1 January 2007	30 September 2007	Regiment of Artillery
29		Lieutenant General Milan Lalitkumar Naidu, PVSM AVSM YSM	1 October 2007	31 December 2008	Rajput Regiment	Gen. Kapoor
30		Lieutenant General Noble Thamburaj, PVSM SM	1 January 2008	30 September 2009	Bombay Sappers
31		Lieutenant General Prabodh Chandra Bhardwaj, PVSM AVSM VrC SC VSM	1 October 2009	30 November 2010	Parachute Regiment
						Gen. V. K. Singh
32		Lieutenant General Arvinder Singh Lamba, PVSM AVSM	6 December 2010	30 September 2011	Regiment of Artillery
33		Lieutenant General Sri Krishna Singh, PVSM UYSM AVSM	1 October 2011	31 December 2013	8th Gorkha Rifles
						Gen. Bikram Singh
34		Lieutenant General Dalbir Singh Suhag, PVSM UYSM AVSM VSM ADC	1 January 2014	31 July 2014	5th Gorkha Rifles (FF)
35		Lieutenant General Philip Campose, PVSM AVSM VSM	1 August 2014	31 July 2015	9th Gorkha Rifles	Gen. Dalbir Singh
36		Lieutenant General Man Mohan Singh Rai, PVSM AVSM VSM	1 August 2015	31 July 2016	Bombay Sappers
37		Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat, PVSM UYSM AVSM YSM SM VSM ADC	1 September 2016	31 December 2016	11th Gorkha Rifles
38		Lieutenant General Sarath Chand, PVSM UYSM AVSM VSM	13 January 2017	31 May 2018	Garhwal Rifles	Gen. Rawat
39		Lieutenant General Devraj Anbu, PVSM UYSM AVSM YSM SM ADC	1 June 2018	31 August 2019	Sikh Light Infantry
40		Lieutenant General Manoj Mukund Naravane, PVSM AVSM SM VSM ADC	1 September 2019	30 December 2019	Sikh Light Infantry
41		Lieutenant General Satinder Kumar Saini, PVSM AVSM YSM VSM ADC	25 January 2020	31 January 2021	Jat Regiment	Gen. Naravane
42		Lieutenant General Chandi Prasad Mohanty, PVSM AVSM SM VSM ADC	1 February 2021	31 January 2022	Rajput Regiment
43		Lieutenant General Manoj Pande, PVSM AVSM VSM ADC	1 February 2022	30 April 2022	Bombay Sappers
44		Lieutenant General Baggavalli Somashekar Raju PVSM UYSM AVSM YSM	1 May 2022	28 February 2023	Jat Regiment	Gen. Pande
45		Lieutenant General M. V. Suchindra Kumar, PVSM AVSM YSM** VSM	1 March 2023	18 February 2024	Assam Regiment
46		Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, PVSM AVSM ADC	19 February 2024	30 June 2024	Jammu and Kashmir RIfles
47		Lieutenant General N. S. Raja Subramani, PVSM AVSM SM VSM	1 July 2024	Incumbent	Garhwal Rifles	Gen. Dwivedi

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.

References

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