Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday took off in the Indian Air Force's (IAF) frontline aircraft Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jet from the Jodhpur air base.
The country's first woman defence minister sat in the rear seat behind the pilot and was wearing the pilot’s G-suit.
The sortie is likely to last for 30 minutes, defence sources said. "She is reviewing the operational preparedness and combat capabilities," the sources said.
The Sukhoi-30 MKI is a twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russia's Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF). A variant of the Sukhoi Su-30, it is a heavy, all-weather, long-range fighter.
