First batch of women fighter pilots to be inducted into IAF

NEW DELHI: The first batch of women fighter pilots, comprising three cadets, will be inducted in the Indian Air Force on June 18.

The three women pilots will be commissioned into the fighter stream on June 18 this year after successful completion of the initial training, official sources said. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is also expected to attend the event.

Thereafter, they would undergo advanced training for one year and would enter a fighter cockpit by June 2017.

Bhawana Kanth, Mohana Singh and Avani Chaturvedi are the trainees who qualified for the fighter stream after it was thrown open to women in October 2015.

They will go to Bidar in Karnataka in June 2016 for their stage-III training for a year on Hawk advanced jet trainers, before they get to fly supersonic warplanes.

Six female cadets were competing to become fighter pilots after the government, in a landmark move, approved an IAF plan in October to induct them as fighter pilots.

However, only three female trainees were selected for the fighter stream.