Lt. Gen. B.S. Raju appointed Vice Chief of Army Staff

In a rare instance, a three star officer will be taking over as Vice Chief before serving as an Army Commander

The Army’s Director General of Military Operations, Lt. Gen. B.S. Raju, has been appointed next Vice Chief of the Army Staff. This is a rare instance where a three star officer will be taking over as Vice Chief first before serving tenure as an Army Commander.

As a practice in the Army, Vice Chiefs have for a long time been those who had already served as Army Commander. However, Lt. Gen. Raju will be taking first as Vice Chief and is expected to proceed as Army Commander later this year, an official stated.

Lt. Gen. Baggavalli Somashekar Raju will take over as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff on May 1, 2022, a defence official said.

The current Vice Chief Lt. Gen. Manoj Pande is set to take over as the next Army Chief on April 30 from the incumbent Gen. Manoj Naravane.

An alumnus of Sainik School Bijapur and National Defence Academy, Lt. Gen. Raju was commissioned in the JAT Regiment on December 15, 1984. He commanded his battalion during ‘Operation Parakram’ in the Western theatre and in Jammu and Kashmir.

He also holds the distinction of commanding the Uri brigade along the Line of Control, a counter-insurgency force and the 15 Corps in the Kashmir Valley. The General Officer also served as the Commandant, Indian Military Training Team in Bhutan.

The General officer is a qualified helicopter pilot having carried out operational flying in Somalia, as part of UNOSOM-II. He is also the Colonel of the JAT Regiment.