Even as the Indian armed forces continues to disallow its women soldiers into roles of combat, today, India witnessed women take a giant leap towards the goal of securing the skies for their motherland.

In October 2015, the government decided to open the fighter pilot stream for women on an experimental basis for five years. Since then, the three women in their early twenties, who were selected from a batch of 125, have been undergoing gruelling training – from 4 am to 10 pm for almost a year – in order to become the country’s first fighter pilots. Avani Chaturvedi from Madhya Pradesh, Bhawana Kanth from Bihar and Mohana Singh from Rajasthan are currently undergoing Stage-II training in Kiran Intermediate Jet Trainers at Hakimpet Air Force station in Hyderabad.

The women, during their time in the training, have operated only with the relatively easier-t0-handle aircrafts like Pilatus PC-7 turboprops, Kiran and Hawk jet trainers. Today, the woman are rewriting their own history by getting their hands on the Mikoyan-Gurevich 21 (MiG 21) planes which happens to be first ever time that Indian woman are piloting them. MiG 21s are supersonic jets and interceptors designed by Russia. These plans are the fastest in the world when it comes to landing speed and take-off speed, recorded at 340 kilometres per hour.