Lt Gen Sandeep Jain, AVSM, SM assumed the appointment of the Vice Chief of the Army Staff (VCOAS) on Wednesday the First of July 2026.<\/p>\n
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, he was commissioned into the MAHAR Regiment in June 1988.<\/p>\n
Over nearly four decades of distinguished service, he has held a wide range of command and staff appointments across diverse operational environments.<\/p>\n
He has commanded an Infantry Battalion in semi-desert terrain as well as in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, an Infantry Brigade in a Strike Corps, a Counter Insurgency Force and a Pivot Corps in Northern Command.<\/p>\n
His operational experience includes participation in Operation Pawan, service as a Military Observer with the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and multiple tenures in high-altitude areas and counter-insurgency operations along the Line of Control and in the North East.<\/p>\n
The General Officer also commanded a Sector in UN Mission in South Sudan.<\/p>\n
On promotion to Lieutenant General, he commanded a Corps in Northern Command.<\/p>\n
He later served as Chief of Staff at Headquarters Southern Command, where he contributed significantly to capability development, force restructuring and overall operational preparedness.<\/p>\n
On elevation as Army Commander, he served as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Command.<\/p>\n
Lieutenant General Jain has held key staff and operational appointments across varied formations and headquarters.<\/p>\n
His assignments have provided him deep exposure to conventional operations, counter-insurgency, high-altitude areas, United Nations missions and force preparedness in diverse terrain.<\/p>\n
A distinguished officer, he has attended the Higher Command Course at the Army War College and the National Defence Course in Kenya.<\/p>\n
In recognition of his distinguished service, he has been awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and the Sena Medal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An alumni of NDA, he was commissioned into Mahar Regiment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[68,69],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-army","tag-lt-gen-sandeep-jain","tag-vice-chief-of-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/defencetimes.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}