- Breakthrough fills long-standing gap in naval history: expert
BEIJING 8 NOVEMBER 2026 (Agencies) – The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s first batch of female shipborne pilot trainees have all passed their graduation assessments and reported to frontline units, state media outlets reported on Saturday, in what they described as a new addition to the navy’s aviation talent pool and a breakthrough in shipborne pilot training.
A military affairs expert said the first batch of female shipborne pilots now on duty fly helicopters, and that as the training system matures, more female pilots, including female fixed-wing carrier fighter pilots, are expected in the future. The PLA Navy said that at around 9 am, following tower instructions, trainee pilot Han Meng lifted her aircraft into the air, completing hovering, takeoff acceleration, instrument flight and platform landing in succession during the assessment. The pilots had previously passed demanding assessments, including day and night landings, confined-area takeoffs and landings, and search and rescue, and the graduation assessment focused on crew resource management and overall flight proficiency, the navy said.
The trainees were recruited in 2023 as fresh graduates of military and civilian universities, and are the PLA Navy’s first batch of female pilot trainees. All were born after 2000 and were trained by the Naval Aviation University. According to the Xinhua News Agency, they underwent selection, live-aircraft screening, enlistment training, aviation theory study and aircraft type conversion, and then completed the full flight training syllabus before passing their graduation assessments. Xinhua said that as Chinese naval aviation has shifted from shore-based to shipborne operations, recruitment, selection methods and training models for shipborne pilot trainees have been continuously expanded and optimised, with the Naval Aviation University moving difficult subjects once taught only in combat units into the academy phase, greatly shortening the growth cycle for flight personnel and accelerating combat capability generation.
“Passing the graduation assessment is not the end, but a new starting point,” Han was quoted by the PLA Navy’s WeChat account as saying, adding that after joining frontline posts the pilots would keep studying and training, ready at any time to be tested by real missions. Xinhua said the trainees will deploy aboard aircraft carriers and other large and medium-sized surface vessels for diversified missions.
Wang Yunfei, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times on Sunday that they are the first group of female shipborne pilots in the history of the Chinese Navy, marking a historic breakthrough in shipborne flight personnel development and filling a long-standing gap in female naval pilot roles. With a three-carrier system taking shape, demand for pilots keeps growing, Wang said, noting that shipborne flight posts in China were for a long time held almost entirely by men. He said modern naval warfare is less about physical strength than about precision control, electronic analysis and data interpretation, and that recruiting female shipborne pilots would optimise the talent structure, expand the reserve and improve rotation, shift and long-voyage systems, making carrier group duty more sustained and efficient. Training female shipborne pilots is already standard among leading naval powers, he said, citing the experiences of the United States, France and the United Kingdom.
Footage in the PLA Navy report shows the pilots flying shipborne helicopters. Wang said training shipborne helicopter pilots lays a foundation for training female fixed-wing pilots by providing experience in shipborne takeoffs and landings, adaptation to maritime conditions and personnel training. Now that female shipborne helicopter pilots are formally on duty, he said, female fixed-wing carrier fighter pilots are also expected in the future.
In August, the first batch of female shipborne pilot trainees all passed their daytime shipborne landing qualification assessments and moved on to the night landing training and evaluation phase, according to CCTV News on August 14. Shipborne landing is a critical milestone in a shipborne pilot’s development, often described as the certificate for entry into real naval aviation.