Indian Navy: Scripting a new history, the first batch of three women pilots of Indian Navy is ready to start all kinds of maritime reconnaissance mission on Dornier aircraft. After successful completion of a their training, Lieutenant Divya Sharma, Lt Shubhangi Swaroop and Lt Shivangi have now been operationalised to take on all kind of MR missions, said an official.
“They have been operationalised on Dornier aircraft by the Southern Naval Command (SNC),” a defence spokesperson said on Thursday.
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The Navy said these three women pilots were part of the six pilots of the 27th Dornier Operational Flying Training (DOFT) Course, who graduated as fully operational maritime reconnaissance (MR) pilots at a passing out ceremony held at INS Garuda on Thursday.
Rear Admiral Antony George, Chief Staff Officer (Training) of SNC was the chief guest of the event and presented awards to the pilots who are now fully qualified to fly Dornier aircraft for all operational missions.
Lieutenant Divya Sharma hails from Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, Lieutenant Shubhangi Swaroop belongs to Tilhar, Uttar Pradesh and Lieutenant Shivangi hails from Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
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First batch of Indian Navy’s women pilots operationalised for maritime reconnaissance
These officers initially received basic flying training partly with the Indian Air Force and partly with the Indian Navy prior to (DOFT) Course.
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Among the three women pilots operationalised for maritime reconnaissance mission, Lt Shivangi was the first to qualify as a naval pilot on in December 2019. Lieutenant Divya Sharma and Lieutenant Shubhangi Swaroop also joined her after a fortnight.
Later, they were made one batch and became part of the six pilots of the 27th DOFT course, which is the second and most important phase of training for becoming mission ready pilots.
The course comprised one month of the ground training phase, which was conducted at various professional schools of Southern Naval Command and eight months of flying training at the Dornier Squadron of Southern Naval Command.
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