NEW DELHI – Get ready to soon see a woman soar through the skies in the new omnirol Rafale fighter, which can also drop nuclear weapons. Also, don’t be surprised if you finally see women aboard an Indian warship on the high seas.
The IAF has shortlisted one of its 10 female fighter pilots to fly the new Rafale jets in the Ambala airbase, even as the Navy also prepares to deploy two female officers as part of the crew of multi-role helicopters operating from front-line warships. The twin movements herald a new chapter in the long-standing struggle to ensure the necessary gender equality in the 15 lakh armed forces. They also come at a time when the Army is holding a special meeting this month to finally grant permanent commission to female officers, although it has no plans yet to allow them in the main combat weapons of infantry, mechanized forces and artillery.
Although the IAF has had female helicopter and transport pilots for a long time, it strongly resisted incorporating women into its combat current on the grounds that it would disrupt “tight combat flight schedules” if they married and had children. The force argued that, after all, it took around 15 million rupees to train a single fighter pilot.
But the entrenched mindset has been shattered in recent years. Since 2016, the IAF has recruited 10 women as fighter pilots, and Flight Lieutenant Avani Chaturvedi has written history by becoming the first to fly a solo outing in a MiG-21 ‘Bison’ in February 2018. Flying an advanced 4.5 generation fighter like the Rafale would be a breeze compared to the demanding old MiG-21. The IAF does not want the female officer to be appointed yet. But she is ready to undergo “conversion training” to fly Rafales with 17 Squadron ‘Golden Arrows’ at Ambala after becoming “fully operational (operational)” on MiG-21s.
The Navy, for its part, proudly announced that Second Lieutenants Kumudini Tyagi and Riti Singh will be the first female “airborne combatants” to operate from warships. The two obtained their “wings” as “observers” to operate the myriad sensors and other systems aboard multi-role helicopters, which are armed with weapons to engage enemy submarines, at the INS Garuda naval air station in Kochi Monday.
“We cannot wait to be aboard warships. This is the last chance to finally move to the front line role of naval operations, ”said 2nd Lt. Singh. Until now, women can only travel in fixed-wing aircraft like the P-8Is and Dorniers, which take off and land on the ground. The Navy, however, has no plans for now to allow women aboard submarines as well. The process has to be gradual because it will pose administrative and operational challenges. There are also infrastructure limitations because most Indian warships are overcrowded, with no separate toilets, cabins and other women’s facilities, officials say.
“The newer warships, like the indigenous Shivalik-class frigates and the Kolkata-class destroyers, have the facilities. Training women as ‘airborne combatants’ will eventually pave the way for their deployment on such front-line warships, ”said one officer.
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