Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday, 10 October addressed the closing ceremony of Exercise Tarang Shakti 2026 at Jodhpur Air Force Station, calling for stronger self-reliance in defence manufacturing and deeper international aerospace cooperation. The exercise, hosted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) from 26 September to 12 October, is the largest multinational air exercise India has conducted, bringing together air forces from seven Friendly Foreign Countries (FFCs) and 32 observer nations.

Nations and Forces That Participated

The seven participating nations were Australia, Bangladesh, France, Germany, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America. Their contingents brought diverse combat, transport, surveillance and air-to-air refuelling capabilities to the exercise, enabling joint mission planning, operational learning and enhanced interoperability. A total of 32 nations participated as observers, underscoring the global interest in India's growing aerospace profile.

Rajnath Singh on Modern Warfare and Atmanirbharta

Addressing the gathering, Singh stressed that modern warfare had moved well beyond the traditional domains of land, sea and air. 'Future military power will be defined less by the number of platforms we possess. It will be determined by the speed of sensing, understanding, deciding, and acting,' he said, highlighting speed, precision, information and integration as the defining attributes of contemporary military capability.

He pointed to the growing influence of unmanned systems, drones, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and long-range precision weapons in reshaping military operations. Singh underscored that India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had adopted Atmanirbharta — self-reliance in defence — as a national policy, arguing that a nation must be capable of producing its own weapons and critical technologies to sustain itself through prolonged conflicts.

Crucially, he clarified that Atmanirbhar Bharat did not mean isolation: 'The defence relationships of the future will be about technology and trust, not just about platforms,' he said, calling for co-development, co-production, maintenance, training and innovation partnerships with like-minded countries.

Indigenous Platforms in the Spotlight

Singh highlighted India's expanding aerospace and defence manufacturing ecosystem, citing indigenous programmes including the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, helicopters such as Dhruv, Rudra, Prachand and the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), the Akash air defence system, Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars and emerging unmanned technologies. He also referred to the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme as a critical step toward mastering fifth-generation stealth fighter technology.

The participation of the LCA Tejas and the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Prachand in the exercise itself served as a live demonstration of India's indigenous aerospace engineering progress.

Operation Sindoor and the Exercise's Relevance

The exercise's contemporary relevance was reinforced by a reference to Operation Sindoor, which, according to officials, demonstrated the IAF's ability to execute precise, calibrated and effective operations in furtherance of national security objectives. The experience gained from that operational employment, officials noted, reinforces the value of multinational exercises such as Tarang Shakti in preparing forces for the evolving challenges of modern warfare.

Notably, this is the second edition of Exercise Tarang Shakti, building on its inaugural run in 2024. Singh described the spirit of the exercise succinctly: 'Different nations. Different aircraft. Different experiences. But one sky. That is the message of Tarang Shakti.'

Senior Leadership and What Comes Next

Chief of Defence Staff General N.S. Raja Subramani, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, and senior officials from the Ministry of Defence and participating countries attended the event. Beyond flying operations, the exercise featured professional engagements, industrial visits, yoga sessions, heritage tours and an International Night celebrating the cultures of participating nations.

Singh called upon the IAF to incorporate the lessons of the exercise into its training, tactics, technology, doctrine and future capability development, expressing confidence that the participating nations would use the professional relationships forged at Jodhpur as a springboard for new avenues of aerospace and defence cooperation.