• India and Japan will hold bilateral air exercise — Veer Guardian-2023 — from January 12 to 26 to promote air defence cooperation between the countries.

• The exercise involving the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) will be held at Japan’s Hyakuri Air Base.

• The Indian contingent participating in the air exercise will include four Su-30 MKI, two C-17 & one IL-78 aircraft, while the JASDF will be participating with four F-2 & four F-15 aircraft.

• The IAF’s deployment at the exercise will include four Su-30 MKI jets, two C-17 aircraft and one IL-78 plane. 

• The JASDF will be participating with four F-2 and four F-15 aircraft.

• India and Japan agreed to step up bilateral defence cooperation and engage in more military exercises, including holding of the first joint fighter jet drills, during the second ‘2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial’ dialogue in Tokyo in September.

• The upcoming exercise will be another step in deepening strategic ties and closer defence cooperation between the two countries.

• The exercise will include the conduct of various aerial combat drills between the two air forces. They will undertake multi-domain air combat missions in a complex environment and will exchange best practices.

Other bilateral exercises with Japan

• JIMEX - maritime exercise

• DHARMA GUARDIAN - military exercise.

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