India's First Woman Fighter Pilot Completes Top Gun Course

Ten years after walking into a fighter squadron where women had never flown before, Squadron Leader Bhawana Kanth just earned the qualification that puts her at the top of India's combat aviation hierarchy.

On August 6, 2026, Kanth became the first woman to complete the Fighter Combat Leader course at India's Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment in Gwalior. The 20-week program is often compared to the U.S. Navy's "Top Gun" and accepts only about 1% of the Air Force's fighter pilots.

Kanth's journey started in June 2016, when the 23-year-old engineering graduate from Bihar became one of India's first three women commissioned as fighter pilots. Her father worked as an engineer in Begusarai, and she studied medical electronics in Bengaluru before applying to the Air Force.

She cut her teeth flying the MiG-21 Bison, one of the IAF's oldest and most demanding jets, from an airbase in Bikaner, Rajasthan. By May 2019, she became the first Indian woman fighter pilot cleared for daytime combat missions, putting her among a small number of women worldwide flying frontline sorties.

In 2021, she stood on the Air Force's Republic Day parade tableau, the first woman fighter pilot to receive that honor. She later transitioned to the twin-engine Su-30 MKI and received the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's highest civilian award for women's achievement.

The Fighter Combat Leader course pushes experienced pilots through advanced aerial combat maneuvering, weapons deployment, and mission planning under intense pressure. The washout rate is so steep that graduation marks a career-defining achievement even among seasoned pilots.

The Ripple Effect

Kanth's new role means she'll directly shape how squadrons train, plan missions, and fight for years to come. Fighter combat leaders return to their units responsible for developing tactics and training the next generation of pilots, including the growing number of women entering the fighter stream since 2016.

Her achievement builds on groundwork laid by women like Gunjan Saxena and Srividya Rajan, who flew unarmed helicopters into hostile territory during the 1999 Kargil war, evacuating wounded soldiers under fire years before combat aviation officially opened to women. Officers like Shivangi Singh have since gone on to fly the Rafale, and women from across India continue joining the fighter stream.

What started as an experiment a decade ago has evolved into a permanent place at the tactical center of India's Air Force, with Kanth now training the very force that once had no room for her at all.