India sizes up US F-35 stealth jets in landmark first on home turf

The US jets’ participation in the drills “signals a degree of military confidence and interoperability that is difficult to manufacture through communiques”, Sushant Singh, a South Asian studies lecturer at Yale University and former Indian Army officer, told This Week in Asia.

“It also allows India to compare Western networked air-power concepts with its mixed Russian, French and indigenous fleet.”

Analysts say the F-35s’ participation in Exercise Tarang Shakti 2026 offers India’s military insights into how modern, fifth-generation fighters operate, as it struggles to get its own Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft project

off the ground. It also serves as a test bed for cross-platform synergy and operational readiness.