Like father, like daughter: IAF recruit to train as pilot at airbase once commanded by her dad

The daughter of one of the country's top fighter pilots has joined the Indian Air Force's fighter stream, and will soon head for further training at a premier airbase in the eastern sector that was earlier commanded by her father, a serving air commodore - a rare occurrence in the air force that opened the fighter stream to women only eight years ago, officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday.

- Rahul Singh

Muskaan Singh, 24, has been commissioned as a flying officer in the IAF. Her father Air Commodore Ran Singh holds a key post in the Air Headquarters in Delhi. She was among the 204 cadets (including five women assigned to the fighter stream) who graduated from the elite Air Force Academy (AFA), Dundigal, Hyderabad, on December 14 after the successful culmination of their pre-commissioning training in the flying and ground duty branches of the IAF, the world's fourth largest air force.

There have been several instances of fathers and sons joining the fighter stream, but the Singhs are the second known case of a father-daughter fighter pilot pair in the air force, said one of the officials cited above, asking not to be named. Muskaan is a third-generation military officer - her grandfather served in the army. The family hails from Haryana's Bhiwani district.

In 2022, fighter pilots Air Commodore Sanjay Sharma and Flying Officer Ananya cemented their place in the country's military aviation history by becoming the first father-daughter pair to fly in a formation of jets. The two officers flew in a formation of British-origin Hawk-132 advanced jet trainers (AJTS) at the Bidar airbase in Karnataka.