Lt Col Inka Niskanen is an officer and
fighter pilot
A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, air-to-ground combat and sometimes electronic warfare while in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and ...
in the
Finnish Air Force
The Finnish Air Force (FAF or FiAF; fi, Ilmavoimat, , Air forces; sv, Flygvapnet, , Air weapon) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. Its peacetime tasks are airspace surveillance, identification flights, and production of Finnis ...
. She is notable as the first woman in Finland to qualify to pilot a
fighter jet
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
; the first to command an
air force squadron; and the first to reach, upon her promotion in June 2018, the rank of
lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
.
In 1997, Niskanen volunteered for
national military service (which for women is not mandatory in Finland) at the
Training Air Wing, Finnish Air Force
The Training Air Wing ( fi, Lentosotakoulu, abbr. ''LentoSK'', sv, Flygkrigsskolan) was the Finnish Air Force pilot jet aircraft training school. It is located at Kauhava Airport in Kauhava, in Southern Ostrobothnia. The unit trains pilots for ...
, at
Kauhava
Kauhava is a town and municipality of Finland. It is part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region, northwest of Helsinki and by the main railway from Helsinki to Oulu. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The pop ...
. Following that, in 1998, she was accepted as the first female cadet into the air force officer training programme at the
National Defence University, which she completed in 2002, being commissioned as a flight officer, and qualifying to fly the
Hornet fighter jets.
In 2014, Niskanen was promoted to major and in the summer of 2018 to lieutenant colonel. In January 2019, Niskanen took command of the
Karelia Air Command 31 Squadron, as the first woman to hold such a post in Finland.
From August 2021, she has worked at the National Defence University as the lead lecturer in aerial warfare studies.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Niskanen, Inka
Finnish Air Force personnel
Women air force personnel
1974 births
Date of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
Living people