The UK and India have agreed to expand military training ties following the 19th UK–India Air Staff Talks held in New Delhi, an annual senior-level meeting between the two air forces to review cooperation and plan future collaboration.
Under the agreement, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will deploy three qualified flying instructors to the Royal Air Force (RAF)’s fast-jet pilot training base in Wales.
This will be the first time Indian instructors conduct fast-jet training for British pilots at the facility.
Scheduled to begin later this year, the deployment is expected to last for an initial two-year period.
The Indian instructors will remain under IAF command while carrying out instructional duties within the UK’s military flying training system under RAF oversight.
Instructors are expected to train RAF pilots on the BAE Hawk T2 and Texan T1 aircraft.
Defence Attache Commodore Chris Saunders said that the initiative “reinforces the mutual trust and shared experience that underpins our training cooperation and exemplifies the increasingly sophisticated levels of interoperability we are building together across our services.”
Expanding Defense Relationship
The move follows last month’s first-ever assignment of an IAF officer as an instructor at Royal Air Force College Cranwell in England, the service’s main academy for training future RAF officers.
These steps build on a broader UK-India military training cooperation agreement signed during UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to Mumbai in October 2025.
The visit also coincided with the UK Carrier Strike Group taking part in Exercise Konkan alongside the Indian Navy in the Western Indian Ocean, a four-day drill involving ships, submarines, and aircraft from both sides.
