Exercise Siam Bharat 2026, a joint humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise between the Indian Air Force and the Royal Thai Air Force, concluded on Saturday at Air Force Station Agra after a week of tabletop exercises, capability exchanges and tactical air operations.

The fourth edition of the exercise ran from 23 to 29 August under the banner "Together for Humanity", the Air Force said, bringing air and disaster response personnel from both countries together at one location. Further details on the Indian Air Force's role in such exercises are available on the Air Force's own site.

Exercise Siam Bharat 2026 built joint HADR readiness

The week was structured around enhancing joint HADR readiness, according to defence sources, with the two air forces working through tabletop planning scenarios before moving into capability exchanges and tactical flying serials. The format let planners test coordination on paper before putting it into the air.

Neither side detailed aircraft types or specific scenarios flown. No casualty or damage figures featured in the reporting, since the week was an exercise rather than a live response.


NDRF, NDMA and the Army joined the Air Force contingent

Participation extended well beyond the two air forces. The National Disaster Response Force, the National Disaster Management Authority, the Directorate General Resettlement and the Indian Army all sent representatives to Agra, the Air Force said, reflecting the multi agency character an HADR response typically demands in India, where the armed forces rarely operate a disaster relief effort in isolation from civil authorities.

That mix is standard for Indian HADR planning.

A group photograph closed proceedings at Agra

A photograph released alongside the announcement showed senior IAF and Royal Thai Air Force officers, together with the participating agencies, gathered before a backdrop marking the exercise's fourth edition, with imagery of the Taj Mahal and a Thai pagoda framing the "Together for Humanity" theme.

Bilateral coordination beyond a single air force

The stated aim, defence sources said, was to build integrated capabilities and strengthen bilateral operational coordination for regional disaster relief, language that places Siam Bharat inside a broader India Thailand defence relationship rather than an isolated air force engagement. The two countries' armies have run a comparable exercise of their own this year, with the 15th edition of Exercise Maitree sending an Indian Army contingent to Surat Thani earlier in August.

Part of a wider HADR posture

The Indian Air Force has kept a busy HADR record through the year, most recently flying relief material into flood hit Nepal in the IAF Nepal flood relief operation and evacuating hundreds of stranded residents during the Assam and Nagaland flood relief effort earlier in the season. Siam Bharat gives that operational tempo a planned, bilateral counterpart rather than a purely reactive one.

No date was given for the next edition of the exercise.