2 women Navy officers will now operate from warship, while IAF trains woman pilot for Rafale

In a first, two women officers have been selected to join as Airborne Tacticians in the Indian Navy’s helicopter stream that would ultimately pave the way for women being posted in frontline warships.

On the other end, IAF, the first branch of the armed forces to put women in combat roles, is set to deploy a woman pilot to the Ambala-based 17 Squadron that has recently been equipped with the new Rafale aircraft, according to sources.

Sources said Sub Lt Tyagi and Sub Lt Singh will now get trained on board Medium Role Helicopters. The Navy currently operates SeaKing choppers but has ordered 24 American MH-60 ‘Romeo’ helicopters, priced at about $2.4 billion.

Earlier, entry of women was restricted to the fixed-wing aircraft that took off and landed ashore. The two are a part of a group of 17 officers of the Navy, including four women officers and three officers of the Indian Coast Guard, who were awarded ‘Wings’ on graduating as ‘Observers’ at a ceremony held today at INS Garuda, here, a Defence statement said.

The group comprised 13 officers of Regular batch and four-woman officers of Short Service Commission batch. Women in the Indian Air Force, too, may join their naval counterparts in shattering the glass ceiling with a woman fighter pilot being trained to fly the newly induct Rafale fighter jets.

The government had approved women fighter pilots in 2016, and since then, the IAF has 10 such pilots and more in training. Conversion training is the course that the pilots undertake when they switch from flying one aircraft to another.