Meet Mohana Singh, India’s First Woman Tejas Fighter Pilot

Mumbai: Squadron Leader Mohana Singh is flying high by breaking barriers.

She will become India’s first woman Tejas fighter pilot as she is set to join 18 ‘Flying Bullets’ Squadron, at Naliya air base in the Gujarat sector along the Pakistan border.

One of India’s first female fighter pilots, Mohana earlier served in the. 3 ‘Cobras’ Squadron at Nal fighter base near Bikaner, and flew the MiG-21 Bison aircraft.

She was part of the recent ‘Tarang Shakti 2024’ in Jodhpur, biggest multilateral air combat exercise to be hosted by India, where she was part of a historic flight by the Vice Chiefs of the three forces, reported ANI.

Now, she will be flying the indigenous ‘Made in India’ LCA Tejas fighter jet.

In 2019, Mohana became the first IAF woman pilot to become fully operational by day on ‘Hawk’ aircraft.

One of only three women pilots to be inducted in the fighter stream of Indian Air Force, Mohana was among the three Flight Lieutenants to be honoured with ‘Naari Shakti Award 2020’. The other two awardees were Flt Lt Avani Chaturvedi and Flt Lt Bhawna Kanth.

Bhawna and Avni are currently flying the Su-30 MKI fighter jets in the western desert.

These brave pilots are great examples of IAF embracing gender equality in the truest sense.

Since the government opened the fighter stream for women in 2016, the IAF has inducted 20 women fighter pilots.