Historic day! India's first three women fighter pilots to be commissioned into IAF today

Hyderabad: In a historic day for the military, India's first three women fighter pilots will be formally commissioned into the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Saturday.

Bhavana Kant, Mohana Singh and Avani Chaturvedi are the ones, who will be creating history after being commissioned as the first women fighter pilots in the IAF.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will attend the commissioning ceremony of three women officers as the fighter pilots along with flight cadets of various branches of the IAF at a combined graduation parade at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal on Hyderabad's outskirts.

On the occasion, Parrikar will review the Passing out Parade and confer the 'President's Commission' to 129 graduating trainees of various branches including 22 women trainees.

The graduation parade, which will be held as part of successful completion of the pre-commissioning training by the flight cadets of various branches of Indian Air Force will be a landmark event in the history of IAF, as the first three women pilots will be commissioned in the fighter stream of the flying branch, a defence release stated here today.

They will go to Bidar in Karnataka 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.

Parrikar will also present the 'wings and brevets' to the newly-commissioned officers of the flying branch and to the officers from sister services ie Navy and Coast Guard who have successfully undergone the flying training.

During this event, the Defence Minister will award trophies to the flight cadets who have excelled in their respective streams.

The pre-commissioning training at Air Force Academy for various branches such as flying, navigation, administration, logistics, accounts, education and meteorology commences in January and July every year and culminates with the combined graduation parade in December and June respectively.