India's air force will allow female fighter pilots by 2017

Indian Air Force C-17 and fighter jets
(Image credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images)

Women will be able to train and enter the Indian Air Force as fighter pilots, the defense ministry said Saturday. It's the first time India's armed forces will allow women to serve in combat roles, The Huffington Post reports.

"This progressive step is in keeping with the aspirations of Indian women and is in line with contemporary trends in armed forces of developed nations," the government statement read, adding that women's skills were found to be on par with men's.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.