Six F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters arrived at Jodhpur Air Force Station in Rajasthan, about 200 kilometers from the Pakistan border, to fly alongside Indian Rafales, Su-30MKIs and Tejas aircraft. More than 200 US Air Force personnel joined them for Exercise Tarang Shakti 2026.
The deployment marked the first time America’s F-35 multirole combat aircraft had joined joint drills in India, and the first occasion on which the jets undertook tactical missions with Indian fighters from an Indian airbase.
The exercise began on 26 September. It was scheduled to run until 12 October at Jodhpur, while a set of drills ran from 26 September until the following Monday.
Eight nations deployed operational aircraft and fighter jets, while 32 additional nations sent official military observers. Australia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh joined the United States and India among the participating countries.
The forces practised air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, air-to-air refuelling and other complex air operations.
US Ambassador Sergio Gor confirmed the F-35 participation in a social media post on 27 September.
For India, the exercise offered an opportunity to examine a capability it does not yet possess. India has no fifth-generation fighter aircraft, and analysts said operating with the F-35s would provide insights into how such aircraft work.
Indian officials measured the F-35’s performance against the Russian-developed Sukhoi Su-30MKI, the backbone of India’s air force. The Indian Air Force is also struggling to get its Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft project off the ground.
Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, the Indian Vice Chief of the Air Staff, said the air force wanted to use the exercise to test lessons from India’s brief conflict with Pakistan in May last year. The IAF also planned to incorporate lessons from recent conflicts, including Operation Sindoor, into its exercise scenarios.
The F-35 had previously appeared at Indian air shows, though it had never before joined drills in the country. Indian air force personnel had operated alongside F-35s in exercises in Australia two years ago.
President Donald Trump said publicly last year that Washington was considering selling F-35 stealth fighters to India. The exercise did not establish whether any sale was discussed or agreed.
Sushant Singh, a South Asian studies lecturer at Yale University and former Indian Army officer, said the F-35 presence “signals a degree of military confidence and interoperability that is difficult to manufacture through communiques”. He said the exercise “allows India to compare Western networked air-power concepts with its mixed Russian, French and indigenous fleet”.
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