The Indian Air Force named Group Captain Shaliza Dhami to command a frontline combat unit in the Western sector on Tuesday.
Group Captain Dhami will be the IAF’s first female officer to command a missile squadron in the Western sector, which will face Pakistan. She is currently assigned to a frontline command headquarters’ operations branch.
Group Captain Dhami was appointed as a helicopter pilot in 2003 and has over 2,800 hours of flight time. She has flown the helicopters Chetak and Cheetah.
She was a qualified flying instructor and flight commander of a Chetak unit at Hindon air base, both of which were firsts for an Indian Air Force woman officer.
She has previously received two commendations from the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief.
She flew several search-and-rescue missions as well as flood relief missions as a helicopter pilot.
Her parents were both government employees, so she made the decision to join the Indian Air Force very early on, especially after becoming an NCC cadet.
Vineet Joshi, her husband, is also an Indian Air Force helicopter pilot.
The Indian Air Force began inducting female fighter pilots in 2016; the first batch included three female fighter pilots. Currently, they fly the MiG-21, Su-30MKI, and Rafale.
The news comes just weeks after the Army promoted 108 women officers to the rank of Colonel (selection grade), making them eligible for command positions.
Engineers, Signals, Army Air Defence, Intelligence Corps, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, and Electronics and Mechanical Engineers are among the units in which women officers have taken command. The Navy has also begun to accept female officers on frontline ships, which were previously off-limits to female officers.
Many of them have been assigned to the Army’s sensitive northern and eastern commands.
There are 10,493 female officers in the armed forces, with the majority serving in the medical services.
The Indian Army, the largest of the three services, has the most women officers, with 1,705, followed by 1,640 in the Indian Air Force and 559 in the Indian Navy – according to data provided to Parliament by the government last year.
