Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh addressed the participants of the second edition of Exercise Tarang Shakti 2026 at Air Force Station Jodhpur on October 10, 2026. Hosted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) from 26 September to 12 October 2026, the multinational air exercise brought together air forces from seven Friendly Foreign Countries (FFCs) including Australia, Bangladesh, France, Germany, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America along with 32 observer nations.
Congratulating the IAF and all organisations and personnel involved in the successful conduct of the exercise, the Raksha Mantri welcomed the participating nations and appreciated their contribution to strengthening professional understanding and operational cooperation. He noted that the presence of participating air forces had added significant value to the exercise and expressed hope that the contingents would return with valuable professional insights and a deeper understanding of India’s capabilities and perspectives. He highlighted the importance of self-reliance in the defence sector, technological innovation and international partnerships in addressing the evolving challenges of modern warfare.
Addressing the gathering, Shri Rajnath Singh observed that modern warfare was undergoing a profound transformation, extending beyond the traditional domains of land, sea and air to encompass space, cyber, the electromagnetic spectrum and the information domain. He highlighted the growing influence of unmanned systems, drones, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and long-range precision weapons in shaping contemporary military operations.
“Future military power will be defined less by the number of platforms we possess. It will be determined by the speed of sensing, understanding, deciding, and acting,” he said, underlining that speed, precision, information and integration had emerged as defining attributes of military capability. He also emphasised the need for continuous vigilance in view of the rapidly changing geopolitical environment and the uncertainties associated with technological advancements in the defence sector.
The Raksha Mantri said that India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, had recognised the importance of strengthening national resilience against emerging security challenges and had adopted Atmanirbharta in defence as a national policy. He stressed that a nation must possess the capability to produce its own weapons and critical technologies to sustain itself during prolonged conflicts and periods of uncertainty.
Highlighting the transformation of the Indian Defence Forces, RM said that the Indian Air Force had evolved from a force operating with limited resources at the time of Independence into a modern aerospace power equipped with advanced aircraft, precision weapons, sophisticated sensors, integrated networks and increasingly advanced indigenous technologies. He emphasised that Atmanirbhar Bharat did not mean isolation from the world, but the development of domestic capabilities to design, develop, manufacture, maintain and upgrade critical defence technologies.
Referring to India’s growing aerospace and defence manufacturing ecosystem, the Raksha Mantri highlighted indigenous programmes and systems, including the Tejas fighter aircraft, helicopters such as Dhruv, Rudra, Prachand and the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), the Akash air defence system, AESA radars, electronic systems, and emerging unmanned and aerospace technologies. RM also referred to the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme as an important step towards mastering fifth-generation stealth fighter technology and underscored the importance of advanced aero-engine development and co-production. He said that India was keen to explore cooperation with like-minded countries in research, co-development, co-production, maintenance, training and innovation. Emphasising the growing importance of trusted partnerships and resilient supply chains, he stated, “The defence relationships of the future will be about technology and trust, not just about platforms.”
The Raksha Mantri observed that building strong indigenous capabilities must go hand in hand with meaningful cooperation with trusted partners. India must be capable of acting independently when required while also operating effectively with other nations when their interests and responsibilities converge, he emphasised.
