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Women to soon be inducted as fighter pilots in IAF: Air force chief
Women will soon be inducted as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force (IAF), Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said on Thursday.
“We have women pilots flying transport aircraft and helicopters. We are now planning to induct them into the fighter stream to meet the aspirations of young women of India,” Raha said at the annual Air Force Day parade at Hindon airbase.
For several years, the IAF has been grappling with the issue of allowing women pilots into its combat wing, the last male bastion in the world’s fourth largest air force. Much of the debate has centred round whether women will be able to cope with the demands of controlling high performance combat aircraft.
Shortly before his retirement in 2009, then IAF chief FH Major had said women could be flying fighter jets before 2014. “I am 100% sure that women will fly fighters in the next four to five years,” Major told Hindustan Times.
“The air force is conducting studies on physiological aspects (of inducting women in the fighter stream),” Major had said.
There are 750-odd women among the 10,563 officers serving in the IAF. Women started serving in the air force in 1992 and are allowed to fly only transport aircraft and helicopters.
Women pilots in the US Air Force have flown combat missions over Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan got its first batch of women pilots in 2006.
Women will soon be inducted as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force (IAF), Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said on Thursday.
“We have women pilots flying transport aircraft and helicopters. We are now planning to induct them into the fighter stream to meet the aspirations of young women of India,” Raha said at the annual Air Force Day parade at Hindon airbase.
For several years, the IAF has been grappling with the issue of allowing women pilots into its combat wing, the last male bastion in the world’s fourth largest air force. Much of the debate has centred round whether women will be able to cope with the demands of controlling high performance combat aircraft.
Shortly before his retirement in 2009, then IAF chief FH Major had said women could be flying fighter jets before 2014. “I am 100% sure that women will fly fighters in the next four to five years,” Major told Hindustan Times.
“The air force is conducting studies on physiological aspects (of inducting women in the fighter stream),” Major had said.
There are 750-odd women among the 10,563 officers serving in the IAF. Women started serving in the air force in 1992 and are allowed to fly only transport aircraft and helicopters.
Women pilots in the US Air Force have flown combat missions over Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan got its first batch of women pilots in 2006.
nice post tfs
