Army commissions 5 women officers in artillery regiments

Press Trust of India

New Delhi

In a historic first, the Indian Army has inducted five women officers into its Regiment of Artillery and three of them have been posted to frontline formations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, military sources said on Saturday.

Lt. Mehak Saini, Lt. Sakshi Dubey, Lt. Aditi Yadav, Lt. Pious Mudgil and Lt. Akanksha have joined the Army’s premier artillery units after successfully completing their training at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai.

Out of the five women officers, three are posted to units deployed along the borders with China and the other two in “challenging locations” near the frontier with Pakistan, sources said.

The Regiment of Artillery is a major combat support arm and it has around 280 units that handle various gun systems including Bofors howitzers, Dhanush, M-777 howitzers and K-9 Vajra self-propelled guns.

Sources said the young women officers are being posted to all types of key artillery units, where they will get adequate training and exposure to handle rockets, field and surveillance and target acquisition (SATA) systems as well as key equipment in challenging conditions.

Lt. Saini has been commissioned into a SATA regiment, Lt. Dubey and Lt. Yadav into field regiments, Lt. Mudgil into a medium regiment and Lt. Akanksha has been inducted into a rocket regiment, they said.  The commissioning of women officers into the Regiment of Artillery is a testament to the ongoing transformation in the Indian Army, a source said.

In January, Chief of Army Staff Gen. Manoj Pande announced the decision of commissioning women officers into artillery units. The proposal was later approved by the government.