The opening ceremony of the 22nd edition of Yudh Abhyas was held on 15 September 2026 at the Auli Foreign Training Node in Uttarakhand. Major General Amaresh Gunjan, General Officer Commanding, 14 Infantry Division, and Colonel Benjamin Jackman, Commander, 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division, US Army, addressed contingents of 600 personnel from each side.
The unusual feature is in the second line of the release: the exercise is running simultaneously at Auli and at the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan. Two locations at once, and two entirely different kinds of ground.
Why two sites, and why those two
Auli, in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, sits high in the Garhwal Himalaya — snow-bound in season, thin in oxygen, steep, and better known to most Indians as a ski slope. It functions as a Foreign Training Node for high-altitude and mountain warfare.
Mahajan Field Firing Range, in Bikaner district, Rajasthan, is the opposite: one of the Army's largest ranges, set in open desert and semi-desert, with the space to fire weapons at full range and manoeuvre armoured and mechanised formations.
Splitting one exercise across both is a statement about what the two armies want to practise. The release gives the aim precisely: enhancing joint capability for the employment of Integrated Battle Groups in mountainous and semi-mountainous terrain, with emphasis on infantry-dominated operations. Auli supplies the mountain; Mahajan supplies the space to shoot and demonstrate contemporary weapon systems.
There is a practical reason terrain gets this much attention. Almost nothing about an infantry operation transfers cleanly between a desert and a mountain. In the mountains, movement is confined to a few axes, weapons must be man-portable or helicopter-lifted, artillery has to cope with steep angles, radios lose line of sight behind ridges, and a soldier not acclimatised to altitude is a casualty waiting to happen. In the desert, visibility is long, mechanised movement is fast, and the problems are navigation, heat, dust, logistics and water. Units train for one or the other; an army with both frontiers has to be able to do both.
Integrated Battle Groups — the concept being exercised
The phrase Integrated Battle Group is the most examinable idea in the release, and it is worth stating what it actually means.
An IBG is a self-contained, all-arms formation, brigade-sized, built to be deployed quickly for a specific task. Instead of an infantry brigade that must be reinforced with armour, artillery, engineers, air defence, signals and logistics drawn from elsewhere when a task arises, an IBG has those elements integral to it from the start — organised, trained and commanded together.
Two properties follow. The first is speed of mobilisation: a force that is already assembled does not need weeks to gather. The second is terrain-tailoring: an IBG facing mountains would be infantry-heavy, while one facing the plains or desert would be armour-heavy. The concept is part of the Indian Army's broader restructuring towards more agile, task-organised formations.
Hold the conventional hierarchy alongside it, because questions often test the ladder itself: section → platoon → company → battalion → brigade → division → corps → command. An infantry division such as 14 Infantry Division typically comprises three brigades with supporting arms; a Brigade Combat Team is the roughly equivalent US modular formation, which is why the American contingent came from 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
The 11th Airborne Division is itself a relevant choice of partner. It is the US Army's Arctic and high-latitude formation, based in Alaska — an organisation whose speciality is operating where cold and altitude are the primary enemies. Pairing it with an Indian division that trains at Auli is a deliberate matching of professional interests.
Technology infusion, and what is genuinely new
The release names technology infusion as a key focus area, and specifies it: training will include the employment of drones and autonomous systems for surveillance and reconnaissance, and demonstration of contemporary weapon systems at Mahajan. Subject-matter experts from both armies will also exchange views on emerging technologies and developments in multi-domain warfare.
Multi-domain operations is the current organising idea in Western and increasingly Indian military thinking. The traditional domains are land, sea and air; to these are now added space and cyberspace, with the electromagnetic spectrum and the information environment treated as contested arenas in their own right. The claim of multi-domain doctrine is that effects in one domain must be planned together with effects in the others — that a satellite link, a jamming effort, a cyber intrusion and an infantry assault are parts of one operation rather than separate specialist activities.
Drones in the ISR role — intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — are the most visible expression of this at the tactical level. A small unmanned aircraft gives a company commander something that used to require an aircraft sortie or a patrol at risk: a live look at the far side of a ridge. The counter-problem arrives immediately with it, which is why counter-unmanned systems are now trained alongside.
Where Yudh Abhyas sits
Yudh Abhyas — the name means something close to "war practice" — began in 2004 and is the oldest and largest of the India–US military exercises. It alternates between the two countries: the 2025 edition was held in Alaska, and the series has previously used Mahajan (Rajasthan), Auli and Babina in India, and Alaskan posts in the United States.
The wider India–US exercise set is a standard pairing question:
| Exercise | Services involved |
|---|---|
| Yudh Abhyas | Armies |
| Vajra Prahar | Special forces |
| Cope India | Air forces |
| Tiger Triumph | Tri-service, amphibious/HADR |
| Malabar | Navies — India, US, Japan, Australia (multilateral) |
| Sangam | Navy EOD/diving |
Two traps live in that table. Malabar is multilateral, not bilateral — it began as an India–US naval exercise in 1992 but now includes Japan and Australia, the four Quad members. And Yudh Abhyas and Vajra Prahar are both India–US army-side exercises, distinguished by the fact that Vajra Prahar is a special forces exercise; a question naming one and offering the other as a distractor is common.
The institutional frame is worth a line. India and the United States have signed the four so-called foundational agreements — GSOMIA (2002), LEMOA (2016) on logistics exchange, COMCASA (2018) on secure communications, and BECA (2020) on geospatial cooperation — and India was designated a Major Defence Partner in 2016. Exercises of this kind are where those agreements become practical habit rather than paper. That interoperability logic runs through the whole study of India's defence partnerships.
🔑 Revision block
The event. 22nd edition of Yudh Abhyas, opening ceremony 15 September 2026 at the Auli Foreign Training Node, Uttarakhand; conducted simultaneously at Mahajan Field Firing Range, Rajasthan. 600 personnel from each side.
The commanders. Maj Gen Amaresh Gunjan, GOC 14 Infantry Division; Col Benjamin Jackman, Commander, 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division, US Army.
The aim. Joint capability for the employment of Integrated Battle Groups in mountainous and semi-mountainous terrain, with emphasis on infantry-dominated operations; interoperability, exchange of best practices, joint planning and execution.
The technology focus. Drones and autonomous systems for surveillance and reconnaissance; demonstration of contemporary weapon systems at Mahajan; expert exchanges on multi-domain warfare.
Integrated Battle Group. A self-contained, all-arms, brigade-sized formation with armour, artillery, engineers, air defence, signals and logistics integral to it — designed for rapid mobilisation and terrain-tailored composition (infantry-heavy in mountains, armour-heavy in plains).
The ladder. Section → platoon → company → battalion → brigade → division → corps → command. A Brigade Combat Team is the US modular equivalent of a brigade group.
The two terrains. Auli — Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, Garhwal Himalaya, high-altitude/mountain. Mahajan — Bikaner district, Rajasthan, desert/semi-desert, one of the Army's largest field firing ranges.
Multi-domain operations. Domains: land, sea, air, space, cyberspace, with the electromagnetic spectrum and information environment contested alongside.
The series. Began 2004; alternates between India and the US; 2025 edition in Alaska. The oldest and largest India–US military exercise.
India–US exercise map. Yudh Abhyas — armies · Vajra Prahar — special forces · Cope India — air forces · Tiger Triumph — tri-service amphibious/HADR · Malabar — navies, multilateral (India, US, Japan, Australia).
Foundational agreements. GSOMIA (2002), LEMOA (2016), COMCASA (2018), BECA (2020); India a Major Defence Partner since 2016.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. Exercise Yudh Abhyas is conducted between the armies of India and: (a) Japan (b) the United States (c) Australia (d) France → (b) — begun in 2004, alternating between the two countries.
Q2. The 2026 edition of Yudh Abhyas was held at: (a) Babina and Alaska (b) Auli and Mahajan (c) Pokhran and Jodhpur (d) Umroi and Deolali → (b) — simultaneously in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.
Q3. An Integrated Battle Group is best described as: (a) A purely armoured formation (b) A self-contained all-arms formation of about brigade size, built for rapid deployment (c) A tri-service theatre command (d) A reserve formation held at corps level → (b) — with supporting arms integral rather than attached when needed.
Q4. Which of the following is a multilateral exercise involving India and the United States? (a) Yudh Abhyas (b) Vajra Prahar (c) Cope India (d) Malabar → (d) — with Japan and Australia; the other three are bilateral.
Q5. Exercise Vajra Prahar, unlike Yudh Abhyas, is conducted by: (a) Air forces (b) Navies (c) Special forces (d) Coast guards → (c) — both are India–US, which is why they are swapped in questions.
Q6. Mahajan Field Firing Range is located in: (a) Uttarakhand (b) Rajasthan (c) Madhya Pradesh (d) Gujarat → (b) — Bikaner district, in desert terrain.
Q7. In the conventional order of battle, which formation is immediately larger than a battalion? (a) Company (b) Brigade (c) Division (d) Corps → (b) — the ladder runs battalion → brigade → division → corps.
Q8. "Multi-domain operations" adds which domains to the traditional land, sea and air? (a) Arctic and desert (b) Space and cyberspace (c) Logistics and medical (d) Strategic and tactical → (b) — with the electromagnetic spectrum treated as contested alongside.
Q9. The LEMOA agreement signed between India and the United States in 2016 relates to: (a) Geospatial intelligence (b) Secure communications (c) Logistics exchange (d) Nuclear cooperation → (c) — BECA covers geospatial, COMCASA communications.
Q10. Consider the following statements about the 22nd Yudh Abhyas: 1. Each side fielded 600 personnel. 2. The US contingent came from the 11th Airborne Division. (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither → (c) — specifically the 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team of that division.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Joint-exercise questions are among the most predictable items in the NDA General Ability Test, and Yudh Abhyas is one of the most frequently named. Four shapes recur. The partner item asks which country an exercise is with; the India–US set is large enough that candidates confuse its members rather than the country. The service item asks which arm conducts it — Yudh Abhyas (army) against Cope India (air) against Malabar (navy) is the standard grid. The bilateral/multilateral item singles out Malabar, and the fact that it began bilateral in 1992 but is now a four-nation exercise is the detail that decides the answer. The venue item asks where an edition was held, and alternating hosts make this a genuine discriminator.
Around the exercise sit two other layers that earn marks independently: formation vocabulary (IBG, brigade combat team, the order-of-battle ladder) and geography (Auli in Chamoli, Mahajan in Bikaner, and the terrain each represents).
The fresh 2026 hooks are the 22nd edition, the two simultaneous venues, 600 personnel per side, the 11th Airborne Division, and the focus on Integrated Battle Groups with drones for ISR. A statement claiming Yudh Abhyas is a tri-service or multilateral exercise is the most likely false option. We describe the recurring pattern here, not any exact past question.
Preparing for the NDA? Exercise-and-partner pairs are free marks when revised as a table, and the terrain and formation vocabulary around them pays a second time. Build the base with our NDA study material, follow the daily NDA current affairs, and prepare with our faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Col D.N. Sharma — Defence studies faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk. The Cavalier, founded by ex-Army officers, has trained NDA/CDS/SSB aspirants since 2001 (Facebook · YouTube).
Source: PIB / Ministry of Defence, 15 September 2026 (Release ID 2310476). The exercise's 2004 origin, its alternating venues including the 2025 Alaska edition, the India–US foundational agreements and the Integrated Battle Group concept cross-verified with US Army and independent defence reporting.