India’s woman fighter pilot trailblazer eyes space
By Julie FRAYSSE and Bhuvan BAGGA
New Delhi (AFP) May 6, 2025
The excited little girl who first touched a plane two decades ago is now flying high as the face of India’s fast-modernising military and its only woman Rafale fighter pilot.
“This is where my adventure began,” Shivangi Singh, 29, told AFP at the Air Force Museum in New Delhi, recalling her first visit as a child when she “gawked” and “immediately knew that I wanted to become a pilot”.
Women were first inducted into the fighter pilot ranks in 2015, two decades after they were allowed to join the Indian Air Force (IAF).
“There have been many of us,” said Singh, a lieutenant. “This not only reflects modernisation (of our society) but also the fact that we can now realise our dreams.”
Singh, who is married to a fellow fighter pilot, is the first Indian woman to fly the French-made single-seat Rafale jets.
New Delhi last month signed a multi-billion dollar deal for 26 of the aircraft from Dassault Aviation, adding to 36 already ordered.
The jets are part of a major modernisation of the IAF to replace its ageing fleet of Russian-made MiGs.
The deal comes as tensions with arch-rival Pakistan rise after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for an attack in contested Kashmir in April that killed 26 people.
Pakistan has rejected any link to the assault, the worst attack on civilians in the Muslim-majority region for a quarter of a century.
India has also eyed with worry its northern neighbour China, especially since a deadly 2020 clash between their troops along their disputed Himalayan border.
– ‘Be independent’ –
Singh, born in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, had to excel in both academics and sports to break into a job once seen by many as something only men could do.
“My mother was a great source of inspiration as she didn’t just want me educated — she wanted me to be independent, and backed all my endeavours,” the pilot added.
India’s Air Force had more than 1,600 woman officers, including many pilots, according to official statistics from 2023.
The world’s most populous nation also has highest proportion of woman commercial pilots — at about 14 percent of the total strength.
Singh detailed her experience of flying, from “nervous and anxious” when she first sat in the cockpit, to the “incredibly exhilarating” moment when flying solo.
The first time Singh took the controls of a fighter jet, a MiG-21,
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