Exercise Yudh Abhyas, meaning "war practice" or "training for war" in Hindi, is the annual bilateral army-to-army exercise between India and the United States. First held in 2002 as a modest, platoon-level exercise focused on peacekeeping operations, it has grown into one of the largest and most consistent bilateral military engagements either army conducts, alternating each year between locations in India and the United States and rotating through a wide range of terrain, from high-altitude Himalayan passes to the Rajasthan desert and the sub-arctic wilderness of Alaska.

Key facts

  • Participants: Indian Army and United States Army (with US Army Pacific typically as the American lead command)
  • Started: 2002, as a small platoon-level peacekeeping exercise
  • Format: annual, alternating between venues in India and the United States
  • 21st edition (2025): held 1-14 September 2025 at Fort Wainwright and the Yukon Training Area, Alaska, with about 450 Indian Army personnel led by a Madras Regiment battalion training alongside the US Army's 11th Airborne Division
  • Recent Indian venues: Auli, Uttarakhand (2022, near the Line of Actual Control) and the Mahajan Field Firing Range, Rajasthan (2024)
  • Scope: command post exercises, field training, counter-IED drills, sniper and reconnaissance training, and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief cooperation

Origins and evolution

Yudh Abhyas began in 2002 against the backdrop of a broadening India-US defence relationship in the years following the end of Cold War-era estrangement between the two militaries. Early editions were comparatively small and centred on United Nations-style peacekeeping scenarios, reflecting the cautious, incremental way both armies rebuilt working ties after decades of limited contact. Over successive editions the exercise expanded in scale, scope and ambition, progressively adding conventional combined-arms tasks, high-altitude and mountain warfare training, urban operations, and complex command post exercises that test how Indian and American brigade and battalion staffs plan and coordinate together.

Locations and terrain

A defining feature of Yudh Abhyas is the diversity of terrain in which it has been conducted. On the American side, editions have taken place at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state and, more recently, at Fort Wainwright and the adjoining Yukon Training Area in Alaska, exposing Indian troops to cold-weather and sub-arctic conditions. On the Indian side, the exercise has been hosted in the high-altitude terrain of Auli, Uttarakhand, roughly 100 km from the Line of Actual Control, as well as in the arid conditions of the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan and in earlier years at Chaubattia. This rotation allows both armies to test their forces across a genuinely wide spectrum of operating environments rather than repeating a single, familiar setting.

The 2025 edition

The 21st edition of Yudh Abhyas ran from 1 to 14 September 2025 at Fort Wainwright and the Yukon Training Area in Alaska, bringing together around 450 Indian Army personnel, led by a battalion of the Madras Regiment, with soldiers of the US Army's 11th Airborne Division. Described as one of the largest bilateral exercises the Indian Army conducts in terms of troops mobilised, the 2025 iteration combined command post exercises, in which officers from both armies worked side by side on operational planning and coordination across brigade and battalion levels, with field training in demanding sub-arctic conditions, including manoeuvre drills, sniper and reconnaissance tasks, and counter-improvised explosive device training. Yudh Abhyas continues to alternate annually between the two countries, with the next edition scheduled to return to India.

Strategic significance

Beyond the immediate training value, Yudh Abhyas is widely regarded as a barometer of the broader India-US defence relationship, which has deepened considerably through agreements on logistics, communications and geospatial cooperation over the past decade. The exercise gives both armies a recurring, predictable platform to test interoperability at the tactical and operational level, familiarise troops with each other's equipment and standard operating procedures, and build personal relationships between officers that often endure well beyond a single exercise cycle.