By: Ammar Nainar
The year 2025 was an eventful one for U.S.-India defense and security ties. Among other developments, it witnessed the renewal of a U.S.-India ten-year framework for defense cooperation. While observers noted the document’s emphasis on deterrence, its regional focus on the Indo-Pacific, and industrial and technology collaboration, they may have overlooked the emphasis on professional military education (PME) and training. In fact, for the first time in a defense framework agreement, India and the United States specified “operational coordination” as an objective for enhancing their collaboration in PME and training. By contrast, in the 2005 and 1995 frameworks, this theme was barely mentioned at all.
In general, professional military education enables a military to impart skills and knowledge to its officer corps and socialize them to organizational norms and practices. By contrast, training is more practical and prepares officers to execute repetitive tasks in a seamless manner. India and the United States both have large armed forces and as such, boast of a strong PME and training infrastructure. They possess multiple academies and institutions from pre-commission to command level. They also train and educate officers from partner countries as part of their defense diplomacy. The United States has a notable program for International Military Education and Training (IMET) and India too possesses a comparable program via its Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) scheme. These programs also enable U.S. and Indian military officers to study at each other’s staff colleges and defense universities. For example, since 1998, at least six of 11 Indian navy chiefs are alumni of the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. India’s first ever Chief of Defence Staff was an alumnus of the U.S. Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
PME and training exchanges in the past have helped India borrow some best practices from the United States. For example, in 1960, when India set up its National Defence College (NDC), the course structure and curriculum was borrowed from the U.S. National War College. Likewise American military officers were also admitted into the NDC’s early cohorts. After India’s 1962 war with China, the Indian Army set up a Directorate of Combat Development, after “taking the idea from the USA” (although as Major K.C. Praval highlights in his history of the Indian Army, the officers closed it down as they “did not know what to do with it”). From 1963 to 1965, the U.S. Air Force trained at least seven Indian Airforce (IAF) fighter pilots in advanced gunnery at an airbase in Nevada. This provided them with exposure to U.S. fighter aircrafts, which later proved useful during the 1965 war with Pakistan, by helping the IAF understand the adversary’s tactics and training patterns. In 1985, the Indian Navy (IN) sought to “re-organize” its training and sent a delegation to study the U.S. Navy’s training systems. Consequently, the IN consolidated its entire training regime under the Southern Naval Command at Cochin. Similarly in 1981, the IN created an Oceanographic Forecasting Cell whose first director was trained at a naval institute in Washington, DC. Overall, such exchanges proved sufficiently useful to both countries to the extent that the United States continued the IMET program even after India tested nuclear weapons in May 1998.
Into the mid-2000s, PME exchanges matured into more joint activities, most notably in 2004, when India and the United States provided humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to Indian Ocean countries following the Indian Ocean tsunami. The two countries’ militaries were able to coordinate their efforts in part due to personal ties between officers who studied together at India’s Defense Services and Staff College in Wellington. Similarly, the Indian and U.S. naval war colleges also co-host conferences. In 2024, they organized a regional conference in Goa for alumni of the Indian or U.S. Naval War Colleges from Indo-Pacific countries. This also enabled the faculties to explore future engagements on wargaming and China maritime studies. Another example of collaboration involves the IAF’s College of Air Warfare, which in 2022 began an intensive reading course inspired by the USAF’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies program in Alabama. The Indian Army via its Military Academy is also conducting cadet exchanges with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Such examples — while not exhaustive — illustrate how U.S.-India PME and training collaboration is slowly evolving from mere exchange of best practices to the conduct of joint operations and activities.
PME and training can be useful in at least four ways that enable operational coordination. Firstly, officers can understand and imbibe each other’s tactics, techniques, and procedures, which often facilitates interoperability. Secondly, war colleges can facilitate the conduct of war games, campaign analysis, and scenario planning exercises, which can help officers refine their operational acumen and determine future uncertainties. For example, in the early 1920s, the U.S. Naval War College in Newport conducted wargames on carrier battle engagements, which helped them prepare for naval aviation even before they possessed an aircraft carrier. Thirdly and relatedly, PME institutions can provide officers with the time and comfort to develop new kinds of operational concepts. This can aid innovation in peacetime and adaptation during combat. Finally, studying and training together helps officers improve their interpersonal relations. In the long run, this can build habits of cooperation and promote a more nuanced understanding of each other’s culture, history, foreign policy, and strategic objectives. Should India and the United States continue to conduct military exercises, joint patrols, disaster relief operations, political-military dialogues, logistics support, and intelligence sharing, cooperation on PME and training can help strengthen the conceptual, practical, and cultural foundations of these operations.
Ammar Nainar is a Program Coordinator and Junior Fellow for the Foreign Policy & Security program at ORF America.