For the first time, Japan will deploy three fighter jets and 110 military personnel from its 8th Air Wing at Tsuiki Air Base in Fukuoka to India for joint training from Sept. 9 to 21 under “Veer Guardian 26,” the India-Japan bilateral air exercise.
The disclosure that Japanese fighter jets would be deployed to India for the first time was made during last month’s visit by Japan’s Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi to India. The bilateral drill will take place at Jodhpur Air Force Station in Rajasthan and will focus on air-combat training, including dissimilar-aircraft combat between Japan’s F-2As and India’s Su-30MKIs.
Experts told Vision Times that the deployment marks an important milestone in air cooperation between the two countries, while deepening their overall defense ties and helping build joint capabilities in the Indo-Pacific for future national security challenges.
“The exercise aligns with other tracks of a more resilient partnership, namely defence industry cooperation, maritime domain awareness, and economic security,” said Air Marshal Anil Khosla (Retd.), a former Vice Chief of the Air Staff (VCAS) and a commentator on Indian air power and military strategy in the Indo-Pacific region.
The first-time deployment of Japan’s fighter aircraft for Veer Guardian 26 is an “important milestone in India–Japan air cooperation,” while joint high-end air combat training represents a major boost to defense partnership and cooperation, he said.
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“For Japan, this is part of a broader shift from ‘defence only’ postures to expeditionary, coalition-capable air operations, including long-range deployments and integration with non-US partners,” Khosla added.
The inaugural Veer Guardian exercise took place at Japan’s Hyakuri Air Base from Jan. 12–Jan. 26, 2023, and involved 150 Indian personnel, four Indian Su-30MKI fighters, two C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, and one IL-78 aerial refueling aircraft. The upcoming event at Jodhpur will be the second edition of the fighter exercise between the two air forces.
Dr Nishakant Ojha, an expert in aerospace security and next generation warfare, told Vision Times that the bilateral air exercise reflects how India is “fundamentally changing” the way it looks at its security and place in the world.
“This is about India’s future. By 2045, if we get this right, India should have over 1,000 modern aircraft, many built here at home. We should be operating seamlessly with allied air forces,” Ojha said.
Emerging Indo-Pacific context
India and Japan are both members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, alongside Australia and the United States. Experts said the upcoming bilateral air exercise between New Delhi and Tokyo should be viewed in the context of the evolving geopolitical situation in the Indo-Pacific.
Takahashi Kosuke, the Tokyo correspondent of The Diplomat, reported that the journey of the Japanese fighter jets is itself a “significant part of the deployment.” According to Kosuke, the three F-2As will fly from Tsuiki Air Base to India via Naha Air Base in Okinawa and Thailand. The deployment will receive support, including aerial refueling, from the U.S. Air Force.
Before Koizumi’s visit to India last month, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun quoted an anonymous “Ministry of Defense official” on Aug. 6 as saying that the objective behind deploying fighter jets to India was to “serve as a check on China.”
Khosla said military exercises in India should not automatically be viewed through the lens of the China threat, as India conducts bilateral drills with numerous countries, generally to learn best practices from one another and improve interoperability.
“However, both countries have disagreements and clashes of interest with China. India and Japan are Special Strategic and Global Partners with converging interests in the Indo-Pacific,” he said, adding that both India and Japan recognize that China’s overall defense modernization, grey-zone activities and territorial assertiveness pose challenges to their national security.
“Such joint military events naturally make China wary and uncomfortable.”
RECENT COVERAGE
Dr. Ojha believes that Chinese military buildup and aggressiveness are a “brutal reality” that India faces.
“China has roughly 2,000 combat aircraft. India has about 700. That’s three times more. Every year, that gap gets worse because China is churning out advanced 5th-generation fighters while India is still developing its own,” he said, emphasizing that India also faces the threat of a two-front war involving its neighbors, Pakistan and China.
“What if Pakistan acts up while China presses the border? Our air force simply cannot handle that with current capabilities,” he said.
According to Dr. Ojha, the bilateral air exercise is taking place at Jodhpur Air Force Station in Rajasthan because of its proximity to the Tibet-Ladakh region, where military tensions between India and China escalated following the deadly 2020 Galwan Valley clash.
“By conducting advanced exercises there, we’re telling China clearly-’Look, we can concentrate modern air power right at your doorstep. We can coordinate with advanced allies. We can defend this border,” he said.
According to him, this strategy does not imply aggressiveness but is about establishing credible deterrence.
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