U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter jets will join a multinational air exercise hosted by India, marking the first appearance of a fifth generation fighter in Indian air drills and giving participating forces direct exposure to operations alongside an advanced stealth aircraft.

The Tarang Shakti drills begin Saturday at Jodhpur air base in Rajasthan state. The base is located about 200 kilometers from India’s border with Pakistan, placing the major multinational event in a strategically significant region.

Eight countries are participating in the exercise, while another 32 countries are attending as observers. The multinational gathering will combine fighters with surveillance and transport aircraft from several participating nations.

India does not possess a fifth generation fighter aircraft. The Indian Air Force will deploy several of its major fighters for the combat drills, including Rafales, Su-30MKIs, Tejas aircraft and the Mirage 2000.

France will bring Rafale jets to the exercise, while the United Arab Emirates will deploy F-16s. The arrival of the American F-35s gives Indian pilots an opportunity to conduct tactical missions with a stealth fighter from an Indian airbase for the first time.

The exercise comes as India’s rival China rapidly expands its fleet of fifth generation fighters. Tarang Shakti could provide the Indian Air Force with first hand experience in missions involving advanced stealth aircraft and insight into how those jets integrate sensor data.

Participants will also gain exposure to how stealth aircraft function as part of a networked force and complicate detection by adversary radars. Those capabilities make the F-35’s participation one of the exercise’s most closely watched developments.

Indian vice chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit said the changing character of warfare makes the drills an opportunity to prepare participants for the challenges “of tomorrow.” He presented the exercise as a venue for learning rather than simply displaying existing capabilities.

“We do not conduct Tarang Shakti to demonstrate what we already know. We conduct it to discover what we still need to learn,” Dixit told reporters on Wednesday.

“Our partners bring their own operational experience. Bringing these together in a realistic training environment allows us to test assumptions, challenge procedures, understand different methods of employing air power and improve interoperability.”

The F-35’s participation also signals that defense ties between New Delhi and Washington remain steady despite broader strains involving trade disputes and India’s purchases of Russian oil. The drills put operational cooperation between the two countries on direct display.

The American stealth fighter has appeared twice at defense exhibitions in India. The Indian Air Force also operated alongside F-35s during joint exercises in Australia two years ago, but the upcoming drill will be the aircraft’s first tactical operation with Indian fighters from an Indian airbase.

Dixit said the Indian Air Force also wants to use the exercise to test lessons learned during India’s brief conflict with Pakistan in May last year. Both countries deployed fighter jets during that conflict.

Along with the United States, France and the UAE, Germany, Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Greece are bringing air assets such as surveillance and transport aircraft. Their participation broadens the exercise beyond fighter combat and adds different operational experience to the training environment.

Tarang Shakti follows bilateral air exercises between India and Japan. During those drills, Tokyo deployed Mitsubishi F-2A fighter aircraft in India for the first time, another notable step in New Delhi’s expanding defense relationships.

The India and Japan exercise ran from Sept. 9 to Sept. 22 and was viewed as a signal of growing defense ties between the two countries amid an assertive China in the Indo-Pacific. It also took place in Jodhpur.

“Our partnership has progressed beyond simply conducting exercises together to refining our tactical capabilities at a practical level,” Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Gen. Takehiro Morita said Sept. 20 in Jodhpur.

The multinational exercise beginning Saturday will conclude on Oct. 12. Until then, the F-35’s debut will place American stealth technology at the center of a broad air combat event involving Indian fighters, foreign aircraft and observers from dozens of countries.