​Group Captain Shaliza Dhami 1st woman to command frontline IAF combat unit

New Delhi, Mar 8: In a significant development on this International Women's Day, the Indian Air Force announced Tuesday that it has selected Group Captain Shaliza Dhami to take command of a frontline combat unit in the Western sector.

 

Group Captain Dhami will be the first woman officer in the IAF to command a missile squadron in the Western sector facing Pakistan. She is currently posted in the operations branch of a frontline command headquarters.

 

Group Captain Dhami was commissioned in 2003 as a helicopter pilot and now has over 2,800 hours of flying experience. Having the experience of the Chetak and Cheetah helicopters, she became the flight commander of a Chetak unit at the Hindon air base— both firsts for an Indian Air Force woman officer.

 

 

Apart from this, she has been commended twice by the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief in the past. As a helicopter pilot, she flew several search-and-rescue missions, and also undertook flood relief operations.

 

Hailing from Ludhiana – her parents were in government service – she decided very early on joining the Indian Air Force, more so after becoming a cadet of the NCC. Her husband, Vineet Joshi, is also a helicopter pilot in the Indian Air Force.

 

The Indian Air Force started inducting women fighter pilots in 2016 – the first batch had three women fighter pilots. They currently fly the MiG-21, Su-30MKI and Rafale.

 

Besides, there are 10,493 women officers serving in the armed forces, the majority in the medical services. The Indian Army, being the largest of the three services, has the largest number of women officers at 1,705, followed by 1,640 women officers in the Indian Air Force, and 559 in the Indian Navy – this data was provided by the government to Parliament last year.