The Indian Navy has decided to allow women to join its elite special forces for the first time in any of the three defence services, senior officials said on Sunday to a leading media house.
Some of the toughest soldiers in the army, navy and air force undergo intense training and are capable of mounting a swift and stealthy response in denied territories and have thus far been a male preserve.
Women in the navy who meet the criteria can now become marine commandos (Marcos). It is a watershed moment in Indian military history. However, no one is assigned directly to special forces units, people must volunteer, one of the officials said without revealing their identity.
According to a different authority, female officers and sailors who enlist as Agniveers the next year will be eligible to volunteer to become Marcos. On land, at sea, and in the air, macros have been trained to carry out a number of jobs.
These commandos are capable of carrying out clandestine operations against enemy warships, offshore installations, and other vital assets, as well as missions of observation and reconnaissance to support naval operations. They have been utilised in counterterrorism operations in Kashmir’s Wular lake region and are capable of fighting terrorists in maritime environments.
As the navy gets ready to induct women into the personnel below officer rank (PBOR) cadre for the first time, the special forces wing is now accessible to female service members.
At the INS Chilka training facility in Odisha, the navy keeps a close eye on the development of the first class of Agniveers, including the women. 3,000 Agniveers were recruited for the navy, and 341 of them were women.
The armed forces have come a long way and are now offering them a plethora of opportunities that have given them new, hard-earned identities, empowered them, and significantly bridged the gender gap in a traditionally male-dominated field. This is three decades after the military commissioned its first batch of female officers in the short-service stream.
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