US Air Force deploys F-35s for first combat exercise in India despite Russian S-400 purchase.

Six U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II fighters arrived at Jodhpur Air Force Station to participate in the Tarang Shakti 2026 multinational air exercise. This deployment marks the first time U.S. fifth-generation stealth fighters have engaged in tactical training within an active Russian-built S-400 air defense environment, a juxtaposition historically barred for partners like Turkey. The 17-day exercise provides the Indian Air Force with operational exposure to fifth-generation sensor fusion and joint interoperability alongside diverse allied fleets.

The deployment brings over 200 U.S. personnel and support assets to operate alongside more than 80 aircraft from multiple nations through October 12, 2026. It evaluates tactical data integration and command synchronization between Western fifth-generation F-35s and Indian frontline fighters while highlighting distinct operational security policies regarding the S-400 system compared to prior precedents in countries like Turkey.

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Six U.S. Air Force F-35As are making their first combat exercise deployment to India despite its Russian S-400s, the same air defense system whose acquisition led Washington to remove Turkey from the F-35 program due to security issues. (Picture source: US DoD)

On September 26, 2026, six F-35A Lightning IIs from the U.S. Air Force's 13th Fighter Squadron based at Misawa Air Base, Japan, arrived at Jodhpur for Tarang Shakti 2026, marking the first U.S. F-35 participation in a combat exercise in India. The detachment also includes more than 200 U.S. personnel and one KC-135R tanker aircraft from the 909th Air Refueling Squadron based at Kadena Air Base, as the exercise runs through October 12. Unlike earlier F-35 appearances at Aero India, the six fighter jets are conducting tactical training with Indian fighter jets, such as Rafales, Su-30MKIs, Tejas, Mirage 2000s, MiG-29s and Jaguars. For 17 days, India therefore gains something it did not receive from the F-35's previous appearances: repeated mission planning, launches, recoveries and debriefs involving an operational fifth-generation fighter inside a multinational force whose aircraft use different sensors, communications systems and operating procedures.

Tarang Shakti 2026 brings together more than 80 aircraft and roughly 1,500 personnel, including about 30 foreign fighters and transport aircraft, compared with 45 aircraft during the inaugural 2024 edition. Thirty-two countries are attending as observers, while the flying inventory includes F-35As, F-16s, Rafales, A400Ms, A330 MRTTs, KC-135s, C-130/C-130Js and KC-30As alongside the Indian Air Force fleet. Missions include visual and beyond-visual-range combat, large-force engagements, dynamic targeting, air-to-air refuelling, combat search and rescue, and protection of high-value airborne assets. More than 1,000 sorties are planned during the exercise, requiring an average exceeding 58 sorties per day across the September 26 to October 12 period.

The presence of the F-35 adds a specific integration problem because India has no operational fifth-generation fighter. Its AN/APG-81 AESA radar, AN/ASQ-239 electronic-warfare suite, Distributed Aperture System, and electro-optical targeting sensors feed a fused cockpit picture, while the Multifunction Advanced Data Link, or MADL, provides directional low-probability-of-detection communications between compatible nodes. Indian Rafales, Su-30MKIs and Tejas fighters are not MADL-equipped, so an F-35 track cannot simply be transferred to every Indian fighter in its native network. The operational measurement is therefore the time and number of intermediary nodes required to move a detection from an F-35 through a gateway, airborne or ground command node, another compatible link or voice transmission to an Indian aircraft able to engage it. This is directly relevant because Tarang Shakti 2024 already exposed the absence of one common tactical data link connecting every participating air force.

The 2024 exercise provides a numerical baseline for that increase in complexity. Eleven air forces participated; 45 aircraft conducted 76 missions and generated more than 800 sorties, with another total reaching 867 sorties and more than 1,180 flying hours. Phase II at Jodhpur alone included 27 fighters, two tankers, two AEW&C aircraft, three special forces aircraft and helicopters, while the U.S. deployed A-10s, F-16s, an E-11A, KC-135, C-130H, and C-17. Moving from 45 aircraft in 2024 to more than 80 in 2026 represents an increase of at least 78%, while the addition of the F-35 introduces low-observable operations and restricted fifth-generation data exchange into an exercise already handling tankers, surveillance aircraft, transports and several fighter types. The principal scaling problem is consequently command capacity: more aircraft create more tracks, refuelling slots, altitude blocks, identification decisions and national information restrictions that must be synchronized during each large-force mission.

Support aircraft provide a clearer measure of the resources behind those fighter sorties. France sent four Rafale F4s with three A330 MRTT Phénix tankers, two A400M transports and roughly 300 personnel, meaning five large support aircraft accompany four fighters during the Tarang Shakti portion of Mission Pégase 26. The U.S. force combines six F-35As, more than 200 personnel, and at least one KC-135R, with 13th Aircraft Maintenance Unit personnel performing F-35 maintenance at Jodhpur. Tankers determine whether fighters must recover for fuel or can remain in the mission area, while AEW&C aircraft extend radar and command coverage but require protection themselves. The useful measure of combat output is therefore not six F-35s or four Rafales on the ramp, but how many coordinated fighter sorties their fuel, maintenance, surveillance, command and transport elements can sustain each day.

The exercise also gives India an overview of fifth-generation operational experience before its Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) enters service. The AMCA's first flight is targeted for September 2028, while operational availability remains a mid-2030s prospect, leaving a multi-year period in which the IAF's frontline inventory remains centered on Rafale, Su-30MKI, Tejas, Mirage 2000 and MiG-29 fighters as China fields J-20s and develops its J-35 family. Russia is regularly offering India the Su-57 through direct purchase, licensed production, technology transfer, and cooperation potentially relevant to AMCA. U.S. policy has also placed the F-35 into the Indian procurement discussion since President Donald Trump's February 2025 remarks and Vice President J.D. Vance's April 2025 visit, but India had not entered formal F-35 acquisition negotiations, and Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh said the IAF had not evaluated the aircraft as a procurement option. Tarang Shakti therefore provides operational exposure without answering the separate question of whether the capability gap before the AMCA should be filled by an imported fighter.

India's S-400 purchase creates a second, narrower issue concerning operational security. Washington removed Turkey from the F-35 program following Ankara's S-400 acquisition, whereas six operational USAF F-35As are now flying from an Indian base despite India's continued operation of the Russian system. No S-400 battery location relative to the F-35 flight profiles, radar mode, frequency, target aspect, altitude, detection range or track quality has been released, so the exercise provides no quantitative basis for calculating S-400 detection performance against the aircraft. The F-35's sensitive emissions, electronic-warfare functions, communications, and mission-data configurations can also be restricted during multinational training. What can be measured is the U.S. decision to deploy six operational aircraft and their support personnel into an Indian S-400 operating environment, rather than the radar performance of either system.

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Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.