1st woman Rafale pilot in IAF team for multi-nation drill being held in France

NEW DELHI: The first Indian woman fighter pilot to fly the new Rafale jets, Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh, is now soaring high in the skies over France as part of the IAF detachment taking part in the ongoing multi-nation Orion exercise there.

This is the first time that India has sent its Rafale fighters. In all, the IAF has sent four Rafale fighters, two C-17 Globemaster-III strategic airlifters, two IL-78 mid-air refuellers and 165 personnel, including 17 pilots, to take part in the Orion exercise.

Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh follows her senior Squadron Leader Avani Chaturvedi who became the first IAF woman pilot to fly a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter in an overseas exercise when she took part in the bilateral ‘Veer Guardian’ exercise with Japan at the Hyakuri airbase in January, as was reported by TOI earlier.

The Orion exercise is one of the largest-ever wargames hosted by France, and also involves land and sea drills with thousands of Nato troops at a time when tensions continue to run high in Europe due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

There are now 17 women fighter pilots in the IAF. Squadron Leader Chaturvedi and her course-mate Bhawana Kanth now fly the Russian-origin Sukhois at the Jodhpur airbase.

Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh, in turn, is the first woman to fly the French-origin Rafale omni-role jets as part of the 17 ‘Golden Arrows’ Squadron in Ambala.

Singh, who hails from Varanasi, earlier flew MiG-21 Bisons before she converted to the 4.5-generation Rafales. After studying in the Banaras Hindu University, she was among the second batch of women fighter pilots who were commissioned in 2017.