Navy selects 2 women officers for warship

Two Indian Navy women officers have qualified to be deployed on a frontline warship as part of crew, while a woman pilot is being trained to join the Rafale fighter jet fleet

In a historic first, the Indian Navy has selected two women officers as helicopter crew for deployment on frontline warships

Selected to join as “observers” (airborne tacticians) in the helicopter stream, Sub-Lieutenant Kumudini Tyagi and Sub-Lieutenant Riti Singh will be the first set of women airborne combatants to operate from warships

They are part of a group of 17 officers of the Indian Navy, three officers of the Indian Coast Guard, who were awarded “wings” on graduating as “observers”. Earlier, entry of women was restricted to the fixed wing aircraft that took off and landed ashore

Rafale to get woman pilot

The woman pilot has been flying MiG-21 fighters and selected to join the Ambala-based Golden Arrows squadron operating the Rafale jets, they said

At present, Indian Air Force has

10 women fighter pilots

18 women navigators

1,875 total strength of women officers serving in the IAF