Key Takeaways
- The Tarang Shakti exercise, India’s flagship multinational air combat drill, is officially resuming after its debut edition in 2024.
- Partner air forces are expected to bring fighter squadrons back to Indian bases, echoing the scale of the first Tarang Shakti exercise held across Sulur and Jodhpur.
- Behind every cockpit is a punishing fitness pipeline — and old Indian wrestling drills explain more of it than most people realise.
- A side-by-side look at akhada training and modern IAF conditioning shows India’s own strength traditions solved problems long before the gym era did.
What Is the Tarang Shakti Exercise, and Why Is It Being Revived?
The Tarang Shakti exercise is officially back on the Indian Air Force’s calendar, with the IAF confirming that fighter squadrons from partner nations will once again share Indian skies and runways with the Sukhoi and Tejas pilots who call this country’s airbases home. “Tarang Shakti” translates roughly to “wave of power” — and the name was not chosen lightly.
The exercise debuted in 2024 as India’s first-ever multilateral air combat drill hosted on home soil, split across two phases at Sulur in Tamil Nadu and Jodhpur in Rajasthan. It pulled in fighter jets, transport aircraft and air defence assets from more than a dozen countries, with several others sending observers. For an air force that usually trains bilaterally — one nation at a time — hosting a crowded, multi-country package was itself a statement of intent.
Its resumption signals that the IAF wants Tarang Shakti to become a fixture, not a one-off showpiece. That matters for aviation watchers, but it matters just as much for anyone curious about what it physically takes to strap into a fighter jet and fly formation with six other air forces over a week of back-to-back sorties.
Who Takes Part in the Tarang Shakti Exercise?
The first edition of the Tarang Shakti exercise drew participation from air forces including France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Singapore, with the United States among the nations that sent observers. A resumed edition is expected to follow a similar template — large-scale, multi-nation, and built around joint tactics rather than a simple flypast.
- Fighter jets: Su-30MKI, Tejas, Rafale and allied aircraft types operating together
- Ground assets: air defence radars and command-and-control drills
- Personnel exchange: pilots, ground crew and maintenance teams cross-training on unfamiliar aircraft and procedures
None of that works if the human being in the cockpit cannot handle the physical load of flying six, seven, sometimes eight hours a day for a fortnight straight.
What Does the IAF Expect From a Pilot’s Body Before an Exercise Like This?
A fighter pilot pulling nine times the force of gravity in a tight turn is not just tired — their blood is trying to leave their brain. Without trained core, leg and neck muscles clamping down to keep blood pressure up top, a pilot blacks out in seconds. That is why IAF fitness testing for fast-jet pilots leans so heavily on anaerobic strength, not just the long-distance running most people associate with “fitness.”
Ahead of a packed schedule like the Tarang Shakti exercise, squadrons typically tighten their conditioning cycles months in advance — centrifuge sessions to build G-tolerance, core-strength blocks, and neck work that rarely gets mentioned outside flying circles.
That neck work is where this story gets interesting for anyone who has spent time around an Indian akhada.
The Akhada Angle: How Old Wrestling Drills Explain Modern Cockpit Fitness
Years ago, watching a pehlwan train before dawn in a mud-floor akhada near Varanasi, I remember the coach correcting a boy’s dand not for form but for breathing — “the strength is in the exhale, not the arms,” he said. That single line stuck with me longer than any gym instructor’s cue ever has, and it comes back every time I read about pilots training for G-forces.
From Mudgar to Mace: The Same Rotational Strength
The gada and mudgar — the heavy wooden mace and club Indian wrestlers have swung for centuries — were never about raw weight. They built rotational shoulder and core strength through slow, controlled arcs, the same quality strength coaches now chase with steel maces and heavy kettlebells in modern gyms. Anyone who has watched a fighter pilot’s pre-flight core routine will recognise the pattern: control under load, not brute force.
The Wrestler’s Bridge and the Fighter Pilot’s Neck
This is the sharper parallel. Wrestlers have used the neck bridge for generations to protect themselves from being pinned and thrown — building a neck strong enough to support the full weight of the body at odd angles. A fighter pilot under sustained G-load needs almost the exact same thing: a neck and trapezius strong enough to hold a helmeted head upright when it effectively weighs several times more than normal. As detailed on the Exercise Tarang Shakti overview, the scale of joint flying during the drill means pilots log unusually high sortie counts in a short window — exactly the kind of sustained physical stress old akhada conditioning was built to absorb.
Nobody is claiming the IAF runs formal wrestling drills. But the physiological problem — protect the neck and spine under repeated, sudden load — is identical to the one Indian wrestling solved a century before sports science had a name for G-tolerance training.
Traditional Drill vs Modern Equivalent: A Quick Comparison
| Akhada Drill | Original Wrestling Purpose | Modern Equivalent | Who Trains This Way Today |
| Dand (Hindu pushup) | Shoulder and back endurance for grappling | Weighted pushups, plank flows | Fitness trainers conditioning aircrew core strength |
| Baithak (deep squat) | Leg power and hip mobility for throws | Loaded squats in service fitness tests | Armed forces basic fitness protocols |
| Gada / Mudgar swing | Rotational shoulder and grip strength | Steel mace and kettlebell training | Strength and conditioning coaches |
| Wrestler’s neck bridge | Injury-proofing the neck during throws | Isometric neck and centrifuge conditioning | Fighter pilots training for high-G flying |
FAQ
When was the first edition of the Tarang Shakti exercise held?
The inaugural Tarang Shakti exercise was conducted in 2024 in two phases, at Sulur in Tamil Nadu and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, involving fighter squadrons and observers from over a dozen countries.
What does “Tarang Shakti” mean?
It translates loosely to “wave of power,” reflecting the exercise’s focus on large-scale, coordinated air combat operations rather than a single-country display.
Why does the IAF need multinational exercises like this?
Joint exercises let air forces test interoperability — how well different aircraft, radars and pilots from separate countries can operate together under realistic combat scenarios, something bilateral drills cannot fully simulate.
Do fighter pilots really train like wrestlers?
Not formally, but the physical demands overlap heavily. Both disciplines depend on core and neck strength to withstand sudden, extreme forces on the body, which is why old Indian strength methods still translate surprisingly well to modern aircrew conditioning.
Which countries are expected to join the resumed Tarang Shakti exercise?
Based on the 2024 edition’s participant list — France, Germany, Spain, the UK, Australia, Japan, Greece, the UAE, Bangladesh and Singapore among them — a similar or expanded roster is expected, though the IAF is yet to confirm the final list.
The Tarang Shakti exercise coming back matters for India’s defence diplomacy, but it is also a quiet reminder that fitness is never one-size-fits-all. A pilot’s neck and an akhada wrestler’s neck are, in the end, solving the same problem — India just started working on it a few hundred years earlier.