New Delhi: For the first time, Indian Army has selected it two women officers to train them as helicopter pilots at Combat Army Aviation Training School at Nashik in Maharashtra.
This development comes months after army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane cleared a proposal for allowing women officers to opt for the army’s aviation wing.
Till now, women officers were assigned only ground duties in the Army Aviation Corps. Women officers in the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy fly helicopters while the Army Aviation Corps only inducted male officers until now. Pilots have to go through a stringent selection process.
Fifteen women officers volunteered to join army aviation, however, only two officers have qualified through the stringent selection process to include the Pilot Aptitude Battery Test (PABT) and medicals.
The two women are among the 47 army officers who began their training at the Nashik training school on Monday, said a second officer.
On successful completion of training at Nashik, they will join front-line flying duties on completion of their training in July 2022.
