Squadron Leader Bhawana Kanth has become the first woman to graduate from the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) elite “Top Gun” school. This achievement marks the culmination of a journey that began eight years ago. In 2021, she had already created history as the first woman fighter pilot to march in the Republic Day parade and as one of India’s original pioneering trio of women in the cockpit. From that milestone to her latest record, she continues to rewrite the skies.
She once dreamed of flying while growing up in a small town in Bihar. Today, that dream has earned a permanent place in history under her name.
The IAF’s “Top Gun” school, formally known as the Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment in Gwalior, has never had a woman graduate. Until now.
Squadron Leader Kanth has successfully completed the demanding Fighter Combat Leader course, a rigorous 20-week programme that represents the most advanced combat flying training offered by the Indian Air Force. Only about one in every 100 pilots is selected to attempt it.
She currently flies the Sukhoi-30MKI fighter aircraft, having progressed to this premier jet after earlier flying the legacy MiG-21.
Looking back a decade, in 2016 Squadron Leader Kanth was one of three women commissioned as India’s first-ever women fighter pilots, alongside Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh, thereby entering a cockpit that no Indian woman had occupied before.
In 2021, she became the first woman fighter pilot to participate in the Republic Day flypast and parade, standing on the Indian Air Force’s tableau at Rajpath. Prior to that, by 2019, she had already become the first woman fighter pilot qualified to undertake day combat missions while flying the MiG-21 Bison.
She has now mastered the most advanced air combat techniques and long-range precision strikes, skills that represent the future of aerial warfare and shape how the IAF will fight tomorrow’s battles.
From pioneering entry into the fighter stream to joining the elite “Top Gun” club, Squadron Leader Kanth continues to redefine what is possible, one sortie at a time.
Bureau Report
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