IAF might be all set to fly President Pratibha Devisingh Patil in a Sukhoi-30 MKI ‘air dominance’ fighter on November 26 but has no immediate plans to induct women as fighter pilots in the foreseeable future.

There are financial, operational and cultural constraints in having women fighter pilots, IAF vice chief Air Marshal P K Barbora said on Tuesday. “It, after all, takes as much as Rs 11.66 crore to train a fighter pilot,” he said.

It takes 13-14 years of active flying by fighter pilots for the government to recover the investment on them, he added.

After spending so much, IAF does not want any disruption in its tight fighter flying schedules, which it feels is inevitable after a woman pilot gets married and has children. “Anyone can fly a fighter. But the issue is that after spending so much, then not being able to utilize women operationally would not be a prudent thing,” he said.

With women already flying helicopters and transport aircraft in IAF, they may be allowed to fly fighters in the future. But Barbora said if this happened, it would only be with pre-conditions (like women fighter pilots not having children for a specified period).