The Tarang Shakti operational phase is set to begin at Air Force Station Jodhpur, the Ministry of Defence said on Sunday, a day after an inaugural ceremony opened the second edition of the multinational air exercise.

Seven partner nations are flying with the Indian Air Force (IAF) this time. They are Australia, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The exercise runs from 26 September to 12 October under the theme Power in Partnership. Several other friendly foreign countries will attend as observers, the ministry said. Those nations watch and learn without bringing aircraft.

Air Marshal PV Shivanand, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of South Western Air Command (SWAC), which covers Jodhpur, formally inaugurated the exercise on Saturday. He presented the official exercise patches to the contingent commanders, and the ceremony closed with a display of Rajasthani culture.



Seven nations, eight foreign aircraft types

The foreign line-up mixes fighters with the aircraft that keep fighters flying. Three are combat jets: the F-35 Lightning II, the Rafale and the F-16. The A400M, C-130 and C-130J are transports that move people and equipment. The MRTT and the KC-30A are tankers, which refuel other aircraft in mid-air so they can stay up longer and fly farther.

Where the fighters come from

The F-35 is the United States' stealth fighter, and this is the first time it is training with the IAF. The reasons that matters were covered in our F-35 at Tarang Shakti explainer. The Rafales belong to the French Air and Space Force, which has flown them in for the exercise under Mission Pegase 26. The F-16s are from the UAE, according to reports at the time of the curtain-raiser.

The Indian Air Force flies its own frontline fleet alongside them.

How the Tarang Shakti operational phase works

The foreign contingents will operate alongside the IAF across a range of missions, using frontline combat aircraft and support elements, the ministry said. Aircrew, mission planners and ground support staff will work side by side.

The stated focus is interoperability, mutual learning, aerospace safety and a better grasp of each other's operating procedures. In plain terms, interoperability means air forces with different aircraft, radios and rulebooks learning to plan and fly one mission as one team. That skill is hard to build on paper. It comes from flying together.

The ministry said the exercise also gives the IAF a chance to show its operational capability and professional standards to partner air forces.

Building on the 2024 debut

India hosted the first Tarang Shakti in 2024, in two phases. The first ran at Sulur in Tamil Nadu from 6 to 14 August and the second at Jodhpur from 29 August to 14 September. Ten countries brought aircraft to that edition and 18 attended as observers, according to All India Radio.

This year the whole exercise runs from one base. Earlier this month, Vice Chief of the Air Staff Air Mshl Ashutosh Dixit had said at a curtain-raiser briefing that 65 nations were invited. The full run-up is in our Tarang Shakti 2026 preview.

More than flying

The ground programme is wider this time, with a dedicated seminar, an industrial tour for the foreign contingents, heritage tours and yoga sessions.

The industrial tour is meant to show visiting air forces India's aerospace and defence manufacturing base. The ministry said the exercise will highlight India's growing indigenous aerospace and defence capabilities.

There is also the Sekhon Marathon. It is named after Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon, the only IAF officer to be awarded the Param Vir Chakra, who died defending Srinagar airfield against a Pakistani air raid in 1971.