Scripting history, Flight Lieutenant Bhawana Kanth on May 22 became the first female pilot of the Indian Air Force to qualify to undertake combat missions on a fighter jet.

IAF officials said she has completed operational syllabus for carrying out combat missions on Mig-21 Bison aircraft during daytime.

“She is the first woman fighter pilot to be qualified to undertake missions by day on a fighter aircraft,” said IAF spokesperson Group Capt Anupam Banerjee.

At present, Bhawana is posted at the Nal base in Bikaner.

Another official said she will be allowed to carry out night operations once she completes training for night missions.

Bhawana joined the fighter squadron in November 2017 and flew the first solo on MiG-21 Bison in March last year.

“With her dedication, hard work and perseverance, she has become the first woman officer of the IAF to achieve this feat,” said Group Capt Banerjee.

She is from the first batch of female fighter pilots of the IAF.

Three women - Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh - were commissioned as flying officers in July 2016, less than a year after the government decided to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis.

The IAF has already selected the next batch of three female trainee pilots for the fighter stream.

IAF test-fires aerial version of BrahMos

The IAF has successfully test-fired the aerial version of the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile from a Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft.

The 2.5 tonne air-to-surface missile has a range of around 300 km, and it will significantly enhance the IAF's combat capability, military officials said.

The BrahMos cruise missile travels at a speed of Mach 2.8, nearly three times that of sound.

The IAF became the first air force in the world to have successfully fired an air-launched 2.8 Mach surface attack missile of this category on a sea target on November 22, 2017.