The country's first woman Rafale fighter jet pilot Shivangi Singh was part of the Indian Air Force tableau at the Republic Day parade on Wednesday. She is only the second woman fighter jet pilot to be part of the IAF tableau. Last year, Flight Lieutenant Bhawna Kanth became the first female fighter jet pilot to be part of the IAF tableau, reports Rediff.com.  Singh, who is from Varanasi, joined the IAF in 2017 and was commissioned in the IAF's second batch of women fighter pilots. She had been flying MiG-21 Bison aircraft before flying the Rafale. Read: India reports 286,384 new COVID-19 cases She is part of the IAF's Golden Arrows squadron based out of Ambala in Punjab. The IAF tableau was based on the theme -- 'Indian Air Force transforming for the future'. Scaled down models of Rafale fighter jet, indigenously developed light combat helicopter (LCH) and 3D surveillance radar Aslesha MK-1 were part of the float. It also featured a scaled down model of MiG-21 aircraft that played a major role in the 1971 war in which India defeated Pakistan, leading to the creation of Bangladesh, as well as a model of India's first indigenously developed aircraft Gnat. Read: India marks 73rd Republic Day with pompous parade The first batch of Rafale fighter jets arrived on July 29, 2020, nearly four years after India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France to procure 36 aircraft at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore. So far, 32 Rafale jets have been delivered to the IAF and four are expected by April this year.

India on Thursday ordered a tri-services probe into Wednesday's chopper crash that claimed the lives of the country's first military chief, General Bipin Rawat, his wife, and 11 other armed forces personnel. Tri-services probe means an investigation by the three branches of the military -- the Indian Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. “The Indian Air Force has ordered a tri-service inquiry into the military chopper crash. The investigation will be led by Air Marshal Manavendra Singh (Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command)," Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told the Parliament. Read: India's first military chief among 13 dead in chopper crash Meanwhile, the lone survivor of the crash in the southern state of Tamil Nadu -- senior Air Force officer Group Captain Varun Singh -- was airlifted to a state-of-the-art military hospital in the neighbouring state of Karnataka's capital Bengaluru from a medical facility. "Group Captain Singh is on life support and all efforts are being made to save him," the Defence Minister said.  The 63-year-old Chief of Defence Staff was on his way to deliver a lecture at Defence Services Staff College in Wellington when the Mi-17 V5 chopper crashed in the hilly terrain of the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu's Coonoor district and burst into flames on Wednesday noon. Read: FM shocked at India's military chief's death in chopper crash "With deep regret, it has now been ascertained that Gen Bipin Rawat, Mrs Madhulika Rawat (wife) and 11 other persons on board have died in the unfortunate accident," the Air Force tweeted last evening after day-long DNA tests confirmed the identities of the bodies. Moments later, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, the supreme commander of the armed forces, tweeted to say that "the nation has lost one of its bravest sons". Prime Minister Modi, on his part, described the four-star General as "an outstanding soldier". General Rawat has had a chequered career in the armed forces spanning over 40 years, rising from the rank of a junior commissioned officer to the Indian Army chief and eventually the first head of the tri-services. He reported directly to the Indian Prime Minister.

Indian Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria arrived here on Monday on a three-day visit at the invitation of Air Chief Marshal Masihuzzaman Serniabat, the Chief of Air Staff, Bangladesh Air Force.