India and Australia are now looking to add greater complexity to their military drills. An ‘amphibious exercise’ is being planned to be conducted in India while Rafale jets in the fleet of the Indian Air Force are likely to participate in multi-nation exercise in July at Darwin, Australia.
An amphibious exercise is a joint military training operation that simulates launching a ground invasion from the sea onto a hostile or contested shore. Transitioning forces from water to land is one of the most complex tasks a military can undertake, these exercises require seamless coordination between naval fleets, air support, and ground forces
In August 2025, India announced a joint doctrine for amphibious operations and formalised a framework for integrating maritime, air, and land forces for coordinated amphibious campaigns.
The two nations are looking at conducting this exercise on the west coast of India. Specially designed naval warships will enable deployment of ‘amphibious groups’ capable of deploying marine and army battalions with supporting armour, artillery, and logistics for sustained combat operations.
Meanwhile, drones will provide persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance over vast maritime areas, extending the task force’s footprint. Integration with space-based assets, cyber warfare capabilities, and electronic warfare systems enables amphibious task forces to operate as nodes in networked joint operations.
At present, the Indian Navy has four such ships which are some 5,500 tonnes each and labelled as ‘landing ship tank large’ (LSTL). The new ones would be six times bigger. The Navy has an aging Landing Platform Dock currently in service — INS Jalashwa, acquired from the United States in 2007.
China’s naval expansion and growing presence in the Indian Ocean constitute the primary strategic driver for India’s amphibious expansion. The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleet now has credible power projection capabilities across the Indo-Pacific.
Meanwhile, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles, speaking to the media in New Delhi yesterday had said, “Next month, we will see a detachment of Rafales from the Indian Air Force participating in Exercise Pitch Black.”
Marles said this was literally the tip of the iceberg. “We are training and exercising together across all three services, in fact, and beyond that as well. We have, as two defence forces, never exercised and trained more together than we are right now,” he said.
