Indian Air Force pilots women will now be allowed to fly fighter planes permanently after an experiment was conducted six years ago, Rajnath Singh revealed on Tuesday.
“The defence ministry has given clearance for this scheme to be made permanent,” said an IAF spokesperson. So far, 16 women have been commissioned as fighter pilots.
The first woman pilot for a Rafale fighter aircraft in the country, Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh, walked with pride alongside the IAF tableau at the Republic Day parade last week, bringing women fighter pilots to the fore.She became the second women fighter pilot in the IAF tableau, after Flight Lieutenant Bhawna Kanth last year.
The number of female officers in India’s armed forces has significantly increased over the last few years. A Supreme Court judgment last October will lead to the first batch of women cadets being inducted at the National Defence Academy in June. The court had also instructed the Army to allow women in noncombat streams to get permanent commissions in 2020, as well as to allow women to fly helicopters.
There are also women pilots in the IAF flying MiG-21s, MiG-29s, and Sukhoi-30s in addition to Rafale jets.
There is a growing number of women piloting top-level fighter planes such as Rafales and Su-30s, Their abilities have been acknowledged by the decision to convert the experimental scheme into a permanent one. They have excelled in all branches of the IAF, said Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd)
More than 9,000 women have joined the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force, a jump of threefold from seven years ago.
