Women pilots played key role in India's Op Sindoor strikes on Pakistan

Multiple women pilots and air crew were part of Op Sindoor that India launched in May 2025 in retaliation to Pahalgam terror attack, with one of them flying a Su-30MKI fighter jet being a member of the strike formation that targeted the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) headquarters in Muridke on the opening day of the operation. A defence source told TOI, “All the (women) officers and air crew posted on fighters, transport and helicopters were deployed for the mission. Those attached to the MiG-29, Mirage-2000, Rafale and Su-30MKI squadrons were part of Op Sindoor during those crucial four days, and they were all an integral part of the mission profile.”

The woman pilot flew a Su-30MKI that fired both Rampage and BrahMos cruise air-to-ground missiles on the terror infrastructure of Pakistan during the 88-hour conflict. Women officers were deployed as both combat pilots and weapon system operators on cutting-edge platforms during the mission.

However, the source refused to reveal the exact number of women fighter pilots involved, their names or any details related to their role in Op Sindoor, as it is classified information. A two-part docu-series—Declassified: Operation Sindoor—released recently by an international channel also said that a woman pilot flying Sukhoi-30MKI was part of the mission, without revealing her identity. It also revealed that Indian defence forces had shortlisted 34 targets, but that number was later pruned to nine. The nine targets were struck on the first day of Op Sindoor. The deployment of female aviators during Op Sindoor builds on decades of incremental policy shifts within Indian armed forces. Women were first inducted into armed forces as Short Service Commission (SSC) officers, being restricted to non-combat streams like medical, legal and educational branches. During the 1999 Kargil war, Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena and Flight Lieutenant Srividya Rajan flew HAL Cheetah helicopters into active combat zones for casualty evacuation and reconnaissance. The turning point came in 2015 when the Modi govt allowed the defence ministry to approve a pilot project to induct women into the fighter stream of IAF. In 2016, Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh became the first three women officers commissioned into IAF fighter squadrons. Besides BrahMos and Israeli-origin Rampage, the prominent missiles that were reportedly used during Op Sindoor to target Pakistan’s terror and air bases were SCALP missile (air-launched weapon utilised by the Rafale fleet) and HAMMER (French-origin precision-guided bombs used by Rafale).