Quad to come together for first joint air exercise

In a first for the Quad nations, India, the United States, Japan and Australia will come together for an air exercise next month. India will host the drills, ‘Cope India', in the first week of November.

While India and the US will lead the exercise, Australia and Japan will participate as observers. Japan had joined as an observer during 'Cope India 2023', but this will mark Australia’s first participation — completing the first structured engagement of all four Quad countries in an air exercise.

The timing of the air exercise will coincide with a separate maritime drill, Malabar, involving the same four nations. Malabar, an annual marquee event, will be hosted by the US at Guam — one of its key military bases in the western Pacific Ocean. The island of Guam lies about 2,500 km east of the Philippines.

The bilateral air exercise between India and the US has evolved over the past two decades to include subject-matter expert exchanges, air mobility and air-drop training, large-force engagements and fighter training.

These military exercises have continued despite India facing punitive tariffs imposed by the US.

Meanwhile, Indian Navy warship INS Sahyadri will join the maritime exercise Malabar at Guam. The four-nation drill is often dubbed by Beijing as ‘anti-China’, largely because its participants — India, the US, Japan and Australia — are also members of the Quad.

India-US ties have strained since the Trump administration imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods — among the highest in the world. Half of this tariff is punitive, in retaliation for India’s purchase of Russian crude oil, while the rest stems from stalled trade negotiations.

Exercise Malabar, which began in 1992 as a bilateral naval drill between the Indian and US navies, has evolved into a key multilateral engagement aimed at enhancing interoperability to address shared maritime challenges in the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific regions.

The exercise is significant as all four countries operate similar maritime surveillance aircraft capable of hunting submarines and generating a common operational picture of the sea. They also share other compatible platforms, allowing seamless communication and coordination.

Last year, India hosted Malabar, focusing on a broad range of cooperative and operational training activities. This year, a similar tempo is expected, with discussions and exercises likely to include special operations, surface, air and anti-submarine warfare. Complex maritime drills such as anti-submarine, surface and air defence operations are also expected to be conducted at sea.