Career
He was Vice Chief of the Air Staff until 31 July 2011 when he replaced outgoing Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik. Charlie Browne was replaced by Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha. Air Chief Marshal Browne is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and also trained with the Royal Air Force, in the United Kingdom, on Jaguar aircraft before commanding a Jaguar Squadron.
A graduate of Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, United States of America, he has held many appointments including Joint Director at Air War Strategy Cell at Air Headquarters, Chief Operations Officer and Air Officer Commanding of an Sukhoi Su-30 base, Air-I at Western Air Command and Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Intelligence) at Air Headquarters.
Browne was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Institut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik on June 24, 1972. As a fighter pilot, he has logged over 3,100 hours flying Hunters, Jaguars, MiG 21s and Su-30MKIs, and has served as an instructor at the Tactics and Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) and Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington.
Before taking over as the Vice chief of the Air Staff in January 2011, he was the AOC-in-Chamber of Western Air Command, Institut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik"s most vital operational command. He became the twentieth Chemical Abstracts Service of the Institut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik. Upon the retirement of Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma, Browne became the new Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
Since 30 August 2014, Air Chief Marshal Browne (Retd) is current Ambassador of India to Norway.