THE Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) has not set any quota for the intake of women pilots, said air force chief Gen Mohd Asghar Khan Goriman Khan.

He said women have ample opportunities to join and they only need to meet the requirements and qualifications, in addition to passing the stipulated tests.

“The involvement of women depends on the intake in the army, they must pass the qualifications, must pass the health checks 100% as we want and pass all the required altitude tests.

“Everything is equal for men and women, no discrimination, whoever is qualified, meets the requirements and passes the flight tests, he or she qualifies and that is good for them,” he told reporters in Alor Star today.

He said this after the presentation of pilot wings for the basic flight course series 84/22 and basic helicopter flight course series 64/22 at the Air Force College.

A total of 26 trainees from Institut Penerbangan 1 and 2, comprising 18 fixed-wing aircraft trainee pilots and eight helicopter trainee pilots, received their wings.

Asghar Khan also urged women who continued their further studies at Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) or other institutions of higher learning to join the army.

He said, the current intake of women in the defence force was still low, adding that it offered various other fields including engineering and mechanical.

“We have many applications to join the army but most of them are graduates from UPNM. For certain fields, we may need those from the legal department, for example, so we will take graduates from other universities,” he said. – Bernama, December 9, 2023