New Delhi: The Indian Air Force has a new milestone to its name: Squadron Leader Bhawana Kanth has become the first woman to graduate from the Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) in Gwalior — widely known as India’s “Top Gun” school, often compared to the US Navy’s celebrated Top Gun programme, officially the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor course.
Kanth cleared the Fighter Combat Leader (FCL) course, a 20-week programme regarded as one of the most demanding undertaken by IAF fighter pilots, with only a select few chosen for the advanced training. Only about 1 per cent of IAF pilots are ever selected for the course. Graduates return to their squadrons as in-house authorities on weapons employment and air combat maneuvering.
TACDE’s mandate extends beyond fighters: the institute trains frontline personnel across fighter, transport, helicopter, fighter controller and guided weapons streams, making it the IAF’s most advanced centre for operational air combat training.
A decade in the cockpit
Kanth’s career has been a string of firsts. Hailing from Darbhanga, Bihar, and trained as an engineer before joining the armed forces, she was inducted into the IAF’s fighter squadron in June 2016 alongside Mohana Singh and Avani Chaturvedi, formally commissioned by then-Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar — India’s first cohort of women fighter pilots.
She flew her first solo sortie in a MiG-21 ‘Bison’ from Ambala Air Force Station on 16 March 2018, and by May 2019 had become the first Indian woman cleared for daytime fighter combat missions in a MiG-21 Bison, later moving up to the Su-30 MKI. She has since represented the IAF in the Republic Day Parade in 2021 and the Republic Day Flypast in 2024, and received the Nari Shakti Puraskar from President Ram Nath Kovind in 2020.
Part of a broader shift
Her graduation from TACDE follows closely on the heels of another milestone: just two months earlier, Squadron Leader Saanya became the first woman to earn the IAF’s highest instructional grade, the Category-A Qualified Flying Instructor rating. Together, the achievements mark a steady widening of roles open to women in India’s combat air arm.
Kanth is currently posted flying the Sukhoi-30MKI with her squadron, now carrying the added distinction of being one of the IAF’s elite combat tacticians — a title held by roughly one in a hundred fighter pilots.