Group Captain Shaliza Dhami becomes the first woman IAF officer to get command appointment

The armed forces have opened up command appointments for women officers following a Supreme Court verdict.

In the first command appointment for a woman officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF), Group Captain Shaliza Dhami has been selected to take over the command of a frontline combat unit in the Western sector, the IAF said on Tuesday.

“Having been commended by the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief on two occasions, the officer is presently posted in the Operations branch of a frontline Command Headquarters,” the IAF said in a statement.

Group Captain Dhami was commissioned in 2003 as a Helicopter pilot and has over 2,800 hours of flying experience. A Qualified Flying Instructor, she has served as Flight Commander of a Helicopter Unit in the Western sector.

Congratulating the officer, Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (Retd.), former Additional Director General of the think tank Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS), said on Twitter, “Her younger brother was with us in CAPS, now an Assistant Professor in Imphal.”

The armed forces have opened up command appointments for women officers following a Supreme Court verdict. The Army recently conducted interviews and approved the first batch of women officers for command appointments.