F/A-18F Super Hornet Pilot Is First U.S. Female Aviator To Shoot Down An Enemy Aerial Threat

A female Naval Aviator has become the first woman in U.S. military history to sucessfully execute an air-to-air engagement, downing an enemy craft, in combat during recent operations over and around the Red Sea, according to that service. An F/A-18F Super Hornet pilot assigned to the air wing aboard the supercarrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, or “Ike,” achieved this milestone during a historic nine-month deployment that included a number of other notable firsts.

The pilot in question, who does not appear to have been named at the time of writing, is a member of Strike Fighter Squadron 32 (VFA-32), the “Fighting Swordsman,” based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia, according to a Navy press release. Ike, its air wing, and the rest of its strike group recently returned to the United States, concluding a deployment that started in October 2023. The strike group spent the bulk of that time heavily engaged in defending friendly warships and commercial vessels from drone, missile, and other types of attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, as well as striking that group’s assets shore.

“During their unprecedented deployment, the “Fighting Swordsmen” flew over 3,000 combat hours and completed almost 1,500 combat missions in support of Operations Inherent Resolve and Prosperity Guardian,” the Navy release says. “The squadron employed over 20 air-to-air missiles against Houthi one-way attack drones, which targeted civilian merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Bab-al-Mandeb Strait. During one mission, VFA-32 became home to the first American female pilot to engage and kill an air-to-air contact.”

The release does not say what weapons the female aviator used to achieve her historic aerial victory. During the course of the recent deployment, Ike’s F/A-18E/Fs, as well as Super Hornets elsewhere in the Navy, gained the ability to carry more AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, in addition to more typical loads of AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), thanks to a crash effort to increase their capacity to tackle Houthi drones. The War Zone was the first to report on that development, as well as related work to increase the number of AIM-120s that EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets can carry.

A Growler scored an air-to-air kill during the deployment, another first. Super Hornets flying from Ike had already been seen in the past sporting victory marks denoting drone kills, as well as successful air-to-ground strikes.

“Additionally, VFA-32 aircrew led two of the seven self-defense strikes into the Houthi-controlled territories of Yemen, destroying munitions and command and control facilities which were used to target civilian vessels,” the Navy release adds. “In total, the squadron employed nearly 120 precision-guided air-to-surface munitions in their effort to protect the freedom of navigation in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.”

The Navy has previously said that Ike’s air wing expended 60 air-to-air missiles and 420 air-to-ground munitions in total. You can read more about the actions of the entire strike group here.

Female pilots in the Navy and other branches of the U.S. military have been flying combat sorties, including conducting air-to-ground strikes, for decades now. Still, the VFA-32’s history-making aerial victory is a significant milestone, and for female Navy aviators especially. The service just marked 50 years of women in naval aviation in 2023. The Navy told Military.com last year that between seven and 12 percent of all of its pilots and around 20 percent of the service’s total personnel were women.

Rosemary Mariner, who sadly passed away in 2019, was the first woman in the Navy to fly tactical jets in 1974 and was also the first woman to command an aviation squadron anywhere in the U.S. military.

There have been a number of other important firsts for women in the Navy’s aviation community in recent years. In 2020, Lieutenant J.G. Madeline Swegle made history as the service’s first-ever female African American tactical jet pilot. Lt. Amanda “Stalin” Lee became the first female pilot to join the famed Blue Angels flight demonstration team.

It is important to note that female pilots flying for other air forces have previously scored air-to-air kills in combat. Sources dispute whether Lt. Lydia Litvyak or Lt. Valeriya Khomyakova, who both flew for the Soviet Air Force during World War II, was the first woman to rack up an air-to-air kill. Other female pilots flew in combat for the Soviets during the war, and Lt. Litvyak and Capt. Yekaterina Budanova are generally credited as the only two women to have ever become aces.

Some eight decades later, one of VFA-32’s pilots has now joined this still relatively small group of female aviators to have shot down an enemy craft in the air.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com