An India Japan Tejas sortie over Air Force Station Jodhpur on Sunday carried the chiefs of the Indian and Japanese air forces into the same piece of sky, with Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, Chief of the Air Staff, leading the formation in a fighter and General Takehiro Morita, Chief of Staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), flying in a trainer alongside him. The formation ran in over the airfield and then peeled off for landing.

Gp Capt I Samrat, Commanding Officer of the Tejas Squadron, was captain of the trainer that carried Gen Morita.

For the JASDF chief it was a first look at the Indian light fighter from inside the cockpit rather than across a briefing table, and the IAF made a small ceremony of it. The two chiefs met the Indian and Japanese teams on the line before walking out to the aircraft. He said afterwards that he would carry the flight with him.

"I will remember it not only as a truly valuable experience, but also as a powerful symbol of trust, confidence, and friendship", Gen Morita said at a joint press interaction.

India Japan Tejas sortie lands in the closing week of Veer Guardian-2026

The flight came in the final stretch of Exercise Veer Guardian-2026, the second edition of the bilateral air exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the JASDF, running at Jodhpur since 09 September and closing on 22 September. The IAF has flown a mixed package through it, the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, the Su-30MKI and the Rafale. Japan brought the F-2A.

Those F-2As were ferried in from Tsuiki Air Base in Japan, the first time JASDF fighter aircraft have operated from Indian soil as part of a bilateral exercise. The rest of the Japanese contingent, personnel and equipment, came in separately when the exercise opened on 09 September.

Beyond the flying, the two air forces have worked through advanced operational missions, mission planning conferences, subject matter expert exchanges and sessions on engineering and aerospace safety, according to the Ministry of Defence.


What the two chiefs said at Jodhpur

Gen Morita placed the exercise in a longer arc of contact between the two air forces. The point, as he put it, is no longer the novelty of flying together at all, but what the two sides are now able to practise once they do. He described a relationship that has moved past that first stage.

"Our partnership has progressed beyond simply conducting exercises together to refine our tactical capabilities at practical level. Through increasingly sophisticated training our two air forces have advanced our cooperation", he said. Those efforts, he added, strengthen the capability of both countries to contribute to peace and stability in the region, and he pointed to the spread of contact between the two air forces, from senior leadership down to subject matter expert exchanges, with possible cooperation in the space domain.

ACM AP Singh welcomed Gen Morita and his contingent. "It is a partnership built on mutual respect, professional trust, and shared commitment to peace and stability", the CAS said, placing India and Japan behind a free, open and rule based Indo-Pacific.

Kizuna, the word the IAF chief reached for

The CAS reached for a Japanese word for what the two air forces had built at Jodhpur. Kizuna covers the enduring bonds between people, the close relationships forged through mutual trust and support. He called it "A bond that grows stronger through shared experiences, mutual respect, and collaboration".

He came back to the aircraft when he spoke about where Gen Morita had spent the morning. "I will say that the defence aviation industry and R&D is now set to hit much higher heights", the CAS said, describing the Japanese chief's decision to fly it as a "very clear example of how much faith and trust you have in the homegrown Indian aircraft".

A foreign chief in an Indian cockpit

The Tejas has carried senior passengers before. Indian service chiefs and vice chiefs have flown it at Jodhpur and at Bengaluru, and each of those sorties was read at home as a vote of confidence in a fighter that took a long time to reach squadron service. Sunday's India Japan Tejas sortie put a different audience in the stands. A visiting air chief from one of the most capable air forces in Asia strapped into a seat in an Indian designed aircraft, on an Indian base, watched by Japanese air warriors who fly the F-2A and had spent a fortnight working alongside the Indian jet.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited handed the IAF the last of its FOC standard Tejas twin seat trainers at Bengaluru two days earlier. It is that two seat configuration, with a qualified pilot in the other seat, that makes a flight of this kind possible at all.

Before the sortie

Gen Morita's presence at Jodhpur had been on the calendar for days. A JASDF schedule issued in Tokyo set out a four day trip to India built around the Distinguished Visitors Day programme, and a Tejas flight had been reported as part of it before either air force put it on the record.

Lt Gen Tasaki Takehiro, Commander of the Western Air Defence Force, JASDF, had already been through Jodhpur earlier in the exercise, meeting the participating contingents and the senior IAF leadership running it.

The two contingents have kept a calendar off the flight line as well. On 12 September the Indian and Japanese air warriors sat down together for a yoga session, one of several cultural exchanges run through the fortnight.

Exercise Veer Guardian-2026 concludes on 22 September, after which the JASDF contingent returns to Japan.