Air Force cadets salute during a combined Graduation Parade at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal, about 40
kilometers (25 miles) from Hyderabad, India, way back in 2006.
Through private channels, the government had communicated that Vice-Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal P.K. Barbora had gone much beyond his brief when he had said that the IAF will be able to accommodate women fighter pilots only if they do not get pregnant for 14 years.
This unwritten rule, according to Barbora, was because the IAF invests heavily in training fighter pilots and it takes 14 years to recover the costs. A pregnancy midway would mean that the pilot would have to be rested for a minimum of 10 months. This would seriously affect the fighter pilot's capabilities.
The government has not taken kindly to Barbora's remarks. Sources said that the official briefing was on the issue the issue of the President's flight in Sukho-30 MKI. Obviously Air Marshal `flew' into unchartered terrain by commenting on women and the IAF.
Facing fire from the government, Air Marshal Barbora clarified that his remark on imposing no-pregnancy conditions for women fighter pilots was his "personal opinion", but stopped short of an apology, according to PTI.
@ risk is a habit
he says like that because he aint no politician, but a smart brave soldier. No sugar coated stuff, just plain fact of the matter
Even while running a civilian office, those who are in charge of the offices are aware as to how much difficult it is rely on ladies on important assignments calling for late sitting and sustained labor. Ladies take leave or absent themselves on one pretext or the other. Only those ladies who are at the highest seat behave differently while extracting work from males. Otherwise ladies are given soft assignments and also well defined work so that they finish the same within the prescribed hours. Only males are given dirty part of the work which calls for lot of file searing and old dirty clearances etc. LET OUR WOMEN GET AN OPPORTUNITY AND EXHIBIT TO THE NATION THE SITUATION LIKE MUMBAI AND SIALCHIN GLACIERS.
They will be interested in all glamour associated with armed forces but without the risk and responsibility associated with that.
World over ladies are used in this position only as an ornamental piece and DEFINITELY NOT AS A MAIN BATTLE FORCE. JUST THINK OF THE FATE OF THESE LADIES WHEN THEY HAVE FACE TOUGH ENEMIES SUCH AS CHINA AND PAKISTAN.
Why to waste nation's wealth on show piece diplomacy while our battle tested male soldiers themselves have to slog very hard while tackling situations like Mumbai.
Let not few ladies be given high position just to brag about the equality of india. If the government is serious about role of ladies in armed forces, let them be put on some forward battle front and show to the nation how much capable are they. Be 100% assured when such a situation develops majority of women fighters will be excusing themselves from real battle front on one pretext or the other and wit the backing of politicians.
Well, just my 2 pence here. I had served in air force as a medic.
Pilots are rated by AEB in air force like green and master green. In two decades I never came across one women pilot with master green rating. mind you women only fly transport and choppers now. Air force is being naive and far too much politically correct not revealing these facts. let these facts also be put in public domain.
secondly, on high performance fighter aircrafts high incidence of G-LOC ie gravity induced loss of conciousness is a fact. Females are not known to tolerate this very well. When at high G's body is exposed to complex aerospace dynamics, a muscular male is more suitable for this job.
Also I am not sure how many female fighter pilots would themselves like the idea of flying under high G's during their mensuration period days. During manuveres blood is pushed to the lower regions leading to loss of substantial amount of blood called metrohagia. Loss of blood at such altitudes induces GLOC rapidly. there goes your five days of a month in a perfectly healthy female believing she does not have any other problem.
Just wondering is it right to put these ladies and mind you that aircraft also through this risk, just for the sake of being politically correct.