Lieutenant Divya Sharma, Lt Shubhangi Swaroop and Lt Shivangi are now ready to take on all MR missions on Dornier aircraft, a Defence spokesman said on Thursday. They have been “operationalised on Dornier aircraft” by the Southern Naval Command (SNC) here today, he said.

The spokesman said the three women pilots were part of the six pilots of the 27th Dornier Operational Flying Training (DOFT) Course, who graduated as Fully operational Maritime Reconnaissance (MR) Pilots at a passing out ceremonyheld at INS Garuda on Thursday. Rear Admiral Antony George, Chief Staff Officer (Training) of SNC was the chief guest of the event and presented awards to the pilots who are now fully qualified to fly Dornier aircraft for all operational missions.

While Lieutenant Divya Sharma hails from Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, Lieutenant Shubhangi Swaroop belongs to Tilhar, Uttar Pradesh. Lieutenant Shivangi hails from Muzaffarpur, Bihar. These officers had initially undergone basic flying training partly with Indian Air Force and partly with the Navy prior to (DOFT) Course. Among the three women pilots operationalised for MR Pilots flying, Lt Shivangi was the first to qualify as a naval pilot on December 2, 2019. After 15 days, the two others--Lieutenant Divya

Sharma and Lieutenant Shubhangi Swaroop--also became pilots. Later, they were made one batch and became part of the six pilots of the 27th DOFT course, which is the second and most important phase of training for becoming mission ready pilots, the spokesman said.

The course comprised one month of ground training phase, which was conducted at various professional schools of Southern Naval Command and eight months of flying training at the Dornier Squadron of SNC, INAS 550, he said.

According to a Navy release, Lt Divya Sharma and Lt Shivam Pandey were adjudged First in Flying and First in Ground subjects, respectively.