Israel Missing From India’s Military Drills: Japan’s Jets Are in Jodhpur, U.S. is Next. Why Isn’t Jerusalem?

From 9 to 22 September, the Indian Air Force will host Japan at Jodhpur for Veer Guardian 2026 — the first time Japanese fighter jets have deployed to India. A major army exercise with the United States, Yudh Abhyas, is due next.

India regularly holds massive, highly publicized bilateral military drills with a wide range of partners, including the US (like Ex. Yudh Abhyas and Vajra Prahar), France (like Ex. Varuna, Shakti, and Garuda), Japan (like Ex. Dharma Guardian), Nepal, Sri Lanka, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Mongolia, and Russia.

India also participates in multilateral military drills, such as Malabar with the US, Australia, and Japan.

However, one of India’s key security and defense partners, Israel, is consistently missing from the list of countries with whom India holds joint military drills.

This exclusion is even more perplexing given that India and Israel are not only strategic partners, but Israel is also the third-largest arms exporter to India, and New Delhi has also exported a substantial amount of arms and ammunition to Jerusalem.

For instance, as per SIPRI, between 2021 and 2025, Israel supplied 15% of India’s arms imports, behind Russia and France.

At the same time, India was the largest importer of Israeli arms, accounting for 29% of total Israeli weapons exports.

Indian imports from Israel include air defense systems (SPYDER and Derby), Drones (Heron, Hermes 900, Harop, Harpy, SkyStriker), precision-guided munitions (SPICE kits, Spike, and Rampage), and Radars (ELTA).

The defense partnership also includes joint development projects, such as Barak-8, and licensed production of Israeli UAVs in India (Heron and Hermes 900).

Similarly, a recent Amnesty report identified 2,596 shipments of weapons, ammunition, parts, and military-vehicle components from India to Israel between 7 October 2023 and 30 November 2025.

Israel also provides India with intelligence support for counterterrorism operations.

However, given the similar extremism and terrorism threats the two countries face, they could partner and learn much more from each other’s counterterrorism strategies by holding joint military drills.

Both countries have faced Islamist extremism, repeated terror attacks, and have to deal with pan-national terror groups supported by adversary countries.

Despite this healthy and robust defense partnership and shared terror threats, it is baffling that the two countries do not hold regular joint military exercises.

India-Israel Joint Military Drills

It’s not that India and Israel have never had joint military drills.

For instance, in 2009, the Indian Navy’s INS Brahmaputra, a guided-missile frigate fitted with Israeli Barak missiles, made a four-day goodwill visit to Haifa. Upon arrival, it conducted a PASSEX (passing exercise) with the Israeli Navy.

In 2017 and 2021, the Indian Air Force (IAF) participated in Exercise Blue Flag, hosted by Israel.

In 2017, the IAF sent one C-130J Super Hercules and a 45-member contingent, including Garud commandos, and conducted joint drills in combat search-and-rescue, locating and extracting personnel behind enemy lines, and survival in hostile territory.

In 2021, the IAF sent Mirage 2000 fighters.

Further, in 2017, the Indian Navy conducted a joint naval drill exercise with the Israeli Navy.

In 2024, a joint counter-terrorism drill was held at the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi. It involved Indian agencies (NSG, Delhi Police, Ministry of Home Affairs) and Israeli security personnel in simulated terrorist-incident response.

However, these are symbolic, short exercises.

The two countries have not yet established a regular bilateral joint military drill mechanism.

This lack of regular joint military drills, however, is not a sign of a weak relationship.

The reasons Israel does not participate in India’s major military exercises stem from a deliberate mix of strategic choices, geopolitical sensitivities, and operational differences.

Why Israel and India Do Not Hold Regular Joint Military Drills

Operational Engagement of Israeli Armed Forces: Ever since the October 2023 terror attacks in Israel, the country’s armed forces have been in a constant state of warfare.

As noted earlier, India and Israel participated in limited PASSEX naval exercises in 2017 and 2009.

Further, the IAF sent its aircraft and small contingents for Blue Flag multilateral exercises hosted by Israel in 2017 and 2021.

However, the two countries have not held any joint military drills since 2023, as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have been operating under a permanent state of high military readiness. Following the events of October 2023, the IDF have been fully engaged in active, multi-front regional conflicts involving Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.

Because almost all of the Israeli armed forces are engaged in military operations, it lacks the spare logistical bandwidth, personnel, and assets to send to peacetime international exercises.

For instance, during India’s largest-ever multilateral air exercise, Exercise Tarang Shakti, both Israel and Russia were invited but could not participate due to their ongoing wars.

Similarly, Israel last hosted the biennial Blue Flag multinational air exercise in October 2021 at Ovda Airbase in the Negev Desert.

The 2023 edition was canceled because of the Gaza war, and no 2025 exercise was held.

During the last decade, the frequency of joint military drills between India and Israel has gradually increased. Though still limited in scope compared to India’s exercises with countries such as France, Russia, and the US, the two countries were gradually moving toward regular joint military drills.

However, the 2023 terror attacks in Israel and its subsequent wars in the Middle East broke this momentum.

Discretion Over Display: India and Israel have historically prioritized silent, quiet diplomatic, military, and intelligence cooperation rather than highly publicized public engagement.

For instance, India and Israel considered a joint bombing of a Pakistani nuclear site in Kahuta in the 1980s; however, the plan was later dropped.

This is significant as the two countries established full diplomatic relations only in 1992. This shows that the two countries had deep behind-the-scenes military and intelligence ties even before full diplomatic relations were established.

Further, during the 1999 Kargil War, Israel provided India with Lightning targeting pods for Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jets, Laser-guided bombs and munitions, Unmanned aerial vehicles, and Artillery and mortar ammunition on an emergency basis.

Israel provided this help even though the first Israeli prime minister to visit India was Ariel Sharon in 2003.

Since then, public diplomatic engagement has definitely increased. For instance, in 2017, the relationship was upgraded to a strategic partnership.

Similarly, unlike India’s engagements with the US or France, which are often highly publicized to project geopolitical alignment, the India-Israel defense nexus is built on quiet, transactional, and high-tech cooperation.

However, given the natural progression of the India-Israel relationship, it is highly likely that the two countries will establish a regular bilateral military exercise in the future.

Diplomatic Balancing Act in the Middle East: India maintains a delicate diplomatic balance in the Middle Eastern Region. India has vital strategic, energy, and trade ties with countries in the region.

For instance, the UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner. India depends on the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq for its crude needs and imports the largest share of its LPG from Qatar.

India also has strategic interests in Iran as it could provide New Delhi an alternative route to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.

India has therefore historically balanced its relations with Middle Eastern countries and Israel.

Hosting large-scale, high-profile joint military drills with Israel on Indian soil could complicate India’s relationships with Arab partners and Iran. By keeping defense cooperation strictly focused on procurement, intelligence sharing, and counter-terrorism, India maximizes its benefits without disrupting its West Asian foreign policy.

Doctrinal Differences in Counterterrorism Strategy: While India and Israel face similar challenges of Islamist extremism and terrorism, there are fundamental differences in India’s and Israel’s responses to these challenges.

Indian military strategy in extremism-affected regions has always been to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the local population.

In contrast, Israel’s strategy has been highly offensive and heavily reliant on pre-emptive strikes, rapid mobilization, and fighting intensely condensed battles.

Because their strategic challenges and operational scales are fundamentally different, massive combined conventional drills offer less practical utility to India.

On the other hand, India has tried to learn from Israeli experience in stopping infiltration along the border and has received intelligence support from Israel.

For these reasons, India and Israel have focused on weapons procurement, joint development of missiles and air defense systems, and providing intelligence support to each other, rather than on symbolic joint military drills.

However, a regular joint military drill between the two countries cannot be ruled out in the future, especially given how New Delhi and Jerusalem are becoming increasingly open about their defense and strategic partnership.

• Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK. 
• He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com