A woman fighter pilot of the Indian Air Force will soon join the Golden Arrows squadron operating the newly-inducted Rafale fighter jets.?
The woman pilot is undergoing training to fly Rafale aircraft, reports PTI.?
She has been flying MiG-21 fighters and was selected for theRafale fleet following an internal process, the sources said.
At present, the IAF has 10 women fighter pilots and 18 womennavigators.?The total strength of women officers serving in the IAF is1,875.
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Last week, Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik toldParliament that women fighter pilots are inducted and deployed in IAF as perstrategic needs and operational requirements.
The Golden Arrows squadron of the IAF was resurrected onSeptember 10 last year.
The squadron was originally raised at Air Force station,Ambala on Oct 1, 1951.?The squadron has many firsts to its credit; in 1955 it wasequipped with the first jet fighter, the legendary De Havilland Vampire.
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Five French-made multirole Rafale fighter jets were inductedinto the Indian Air Force on September 10 at the Ambala air force base.
Ten Rafale jets have been delivered to India so far and fiveof them stayed back in France for imparting training to IAF pilots.?The delivery of all 36 aircraft is scheduled to be completedby the end of 2021.
?The second batch of four to five Rafale jets are likely toarrive in India by November.
The Rafale jets are India's first major acquisition offighter planes in 23 year after the Sukhoi jets were imported from Russia.
The first batch of five Rafale jets arrived in India on July29, nearly four years after India signed an inter-governmental agreement withFrance to procure 36 of the aircraft at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore.