Squadron Leader Mohana Singh becomes the first female Tejas fighter of the Indian Air Force’s elite ‘Flying Bullets’ squadron

New Delhi, September 17: Squadron Leader Mohana Singh has become India’s first woman pilot to be part of the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Tejas fighter squadron, officials said on Wednesday. Singh was one of the first three women fighter pilots to join the IAF in June 2016. She has been assigned to the No. 18 ‘Flying Bullets’ squadron, based at Naliya in Gujarat, officials said. Squadron Leader Mohana Singh becomes the first woman fighter pilot in the LCA Tejas fighter fleet,

Singh had participated in the recently concluded multilateral air combat exercise Tarang Shakti. She was earlier part of the No. 3 Fighter Squadron based in Nal, Rajasthan. Singh was flying the MiG-21 Bison as part of the No. 3 Squadron. Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Singh were among the first batch of women fighter pilots of the Indian Air Force. Historic flight by Vice Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force in LCA Tejas fighter jet,

She was inducted into the IAF in 2016, less than a year after the government decided to open the fighter stream to women on a trial basis. In February 2018, Chaturvedi became the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft solo when she flew a MiG-21 Bison. She took off from the IAF’s Jamnagar base. In 2022, the Defence Ministry said it had decided to convert the trial plan for inducting women fighter pilots into a permanent one.

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