By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, May 26
Captain Abhilasha Barak became the first woman officer to join the Army Aviation Corps as Combat Aviator when she was awarded the Coveted Wings along with 36 Army Pilots by Director General and Colonel Commandant Army Aviation at a valedictory ceremony held at the Combat Army Aviation Training School in Nashik in Maharashtra on Wednesday.
Director General of Army Aviation, Lt Gen A K Suri, was the chief guest at the event. Captain Barak’s achievement was described as a “Golden Letter Day” in the history of Indian Army Aviation. Upon successful completion of her training, Captain Barak was awarded the Coveted Wings along with 36 Army pilots, by Director-General and Colonel Commandant Army Aviation. Young Aviators are now ready to spread their wings in Combat Aviation Squadrons, the Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADG PI) Indian Army said in a tweet.
She was commissioned into the Indian Army from the Officers Training Academy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu in 2018. She was placed in the Army Air Defence Corps in September 2018.
During her attachment with the Corps of Army Air Defence, she was selected as a Contingent Commander for Presentation of Colours to Army Air Defence by President Ram Nath Kovind. She attained an ‘A’ grading in the Army Air Defence Young officers course, 75.70 percent in Air Traffic Management and Air Laws course, and passed the promotional exam, Part B, in her first attempt.
She is an alumnus of The Lawrence School, Sanawar (Himachal Pradesh). She completed her graduation with B Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Delhi Technological University in 2016. Before joining the Army, she worked as a Business Technology Analyst for Deloitte, US.
“While growing up in military Cantonments, and being surrounded by people in uniform, it always seemed like an ordinary affair. I never realized that it was different until my father retired in 2011. The feeling only grew stronger after seeing my elder brother’s passing out parade at Indian Military Academy in 2013. That was the moment I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Captain Barak said in an in-house interview shared recently by the Indian Army.
Capt Barak’s family is settled in Panchkula, Haryana. Her father Col S Om Singh (retd) served in the J&K Light infantry.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) IAF has had women copter pilots for almost 30 years, the Coast Guard also has women copter pilots. The Navy has pilots flying surveillance planes like the drones but does not have copter pilots. The Indian Army did not have women officers in the flying branch, so far.
Set up in November 1986, the Army Aviation Corps (AAC) was first deployed in India’s 1987 fight with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Jaffna (Sri Lanka), known as ‘Operation Pawan’. They flew the HAL-developed Chetak and Cheetah helicopters.
Now the Corps and their helicopters operate at high altitudes above areas like the Siachen glacier located in Himalayas where the Line of Control (LOC) between India and Pakistan ends. The AAC operates a fleet of Chetak, Cheetah, Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv, and Rudra helicopters. Their duty includes observation, reconnaissance, casualty evacuations, load drops as well as search and rescue operations in addition to attack.
