Partnership Defense U.S.-India Partnership Defense

The United States and India are Major Defense Partners. The U.S.-India defense partnership is a foundational pillar of a free and open Indo-Pacific, bolstered further by shared values and strategic interests.

The United States conducts more joint military exercises with India than with any other country. Yudh Abhyas and Tiger Triumph are two examples of exercises that reinforce the U.S.-India defense partnership. The navies of the United States and India are instrumental in deepening multilateral cooperation in the Indian Ocean, including through joint exercises and exchanges with other partners in the region.

The growth in our bilateral defense trade has corresponded with growing interoperability between U.S. and Indian services through information sharing, liaison officers, increasingly complex exercises, and defense enabling agreements, such as the COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement).

The U.S.-India military relationship is an enduring partnership that strengthens with each successive bilateral opportunity.

Above: U.S. and Indian Army soldiers participate in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief drills during the Yudh Abhyas joint exercise in Uttarakhand. (November 2022)

Left: Sailors from the USS Frank Cable (AS 40) plant trees during a visit to Andhra University. (August 2022)

Below: Students from St. Joseph’s College for Women on a tour of the USS Frank Cable (AS 40) in Visakhapatnam, where they spoke with female leaders onboard the ship about women’s empowerment and leadership. (August 2022)

Above: Sailors salute India’s Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Sanjay Mahindru, on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC). RIMPAC is the world’s largest international maritime exercise, with 26 nations, 38 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 25,000 personnel participating. (July 2022)

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Below: The U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), steams in formation with Indian Navy Ship INS Shivalik (F 47) in the Philippine Sea for the 26th

Malabar exercise. The series of exercises began in 1992 between the United States and India. The exercise has evolved in scope and now includes Japan and Australia. (November 2022)

2022. CTF 172 is the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance element of RIMPAC comprising service members from the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Japan and the Republic of South Korea. (July 2022)

Right center: Mike Hankey, U.S. Consul General in Mumbai (center), at the India DefExpo in Gandhinagar. (October 2022)

Right: A roundtable of representatives from the U.S. government and defense industry at India DefExpo 2022.