UNICORN, DRDO-ATLA Cooperation and Veer Guardian 26: India-Japan Defence Partnership Expands

India and Japan are pushing their defence relationship beyond military exercises and strategic dialogue into advanced technology, defence manufacturing, naval systems and increasingly complex joint operations, following a major round of talks between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi in New Delhi on August 20, 2026.

The latest discussions placed three developments at the centre of the expanding partnership: the UNICORN integrated naval communications system, deeper cooperation between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation and Japan’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, and preparations for the Veer Guardian 26 bilateral fighter exercise.

The two countries also signed a new Memorandum of Arrangement on Maritime Security Cooperation, providing a wider operational framework for cooperation between the Indian Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

Taken together, these developments show India-Japan defence relations moving from periodic exchanges towards a more integrated partnership involving technology transfer, co-development, exercises, shipbuilding, maritime-domain awareness and defence-industrial collaboration.

UNICORN Becomes Flagship India-Japan Defence Technology Project

One of the most tangible elements of the partnership is the Unified Complex Radio Antenna, or UNICORN, intended for installation aboard Indian Navy warships.

UNICORN integrates several communications antennas into a single mast structure. Such integration can reduce the number of separate antenna structures protruding from a warship’s superstructure while improving its overall electromagnetic and physical configuration.

India’s Ministry of Defence has said the system will help improve the stealth characteristics of naval platforms.

The project is particularly important because it represents the first major India-Japan defence equipment co-development and co-production initiative.

India and Japan signed a Memorandum of Implementation in Tokyo on November 15, 2024 for the co-development of UNICORN masts for Indian Navy ships. Under the arrangement, Bharat Electronics Limited will work with Japanese partners to develop the system in India.

The programme has continued to advance since then. During the India-Japan summit in July 2026, the two Prime Ministers welcomed an agreement in principle on the remaining technical details and called for early completion of the project.

At the August 20 Defence Ministers’ meeting, both sides again identified UNICORN as an important symbol of their growing defence equipment relationship and committed themselves to the project’s early realisation.

More Than an Imported Naval System

UNICORN is significant because the programme is not structured simply as India buying completed equipment from Japan.

The original Ministry of Defence announcement described it as a co-development programme involving production in India by BEL with Japanese collaboration. That makes the project relevant to India’s effort to obtain sophisticated defence technologies while developing the domestic industrial ability to manufacture, integrate and maintain them.

It also gives Japan a practical route into defence-industrial cooperation with India.

Japan historically maintained restrictive policies covering exports of military equipment. Tokyo’s evolving defence equipment transfer framework has gradually created greater space for cooperation with strategic partners.

Rajnath Singh welcomed Japan’s recent review of that framework during the latest meeting and expressed the expectation that it could open opportunities for additional projects.

UNICORN could therefore become more important for what follows it than for the antenna system alone.

A successful programme would establish working arrangements between Indian and Japanese government agencies, defence companies, naval organisations and technology teams that could later support more complex projects.

DRDO and ATLA Move Towards Deeper Technology Cooperation

The second pillar is the expanding relationship between DRDO and Japan’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, or ATLA.

ATLA serves as a key organisation within Japan’s defence establishment for defence technology research, acquisition and equipment development.

India and Japan already have experience working together through the two organisations.

One early bilateral research programme involved cooperative work on Unmanned Ground Vehicles and robotics, demonstrating that the DRDO-ATLA relationship predates the current expansion in political and strategic ties.

The two governments have since decided to broaden that cooperation considerably.

Their updated security framework specifically calls for the enhancement of defence research and development cooperation between DRDO and ATLA, alongside technology sharing, defence-industry interaction and cooperation in emerging fields.

At the August 20 meeting, Singh and Koizumi agreed that DRDO and ATLA would deepen cooperation in advanced defence technologies, while the two governments will also establish a Defence Industry Forum to create stronger connections between manufacturers and technology companies.

Moving Towards Specific Future Projects

The significance of the DRDO-ATLA channel will depend on whether it produces additional hardware programmes.

India and Japan have discussed potential cooperation across areas such as maritime technologies, unmanned platforms, artificial intelligence, automation, cyber systems and other advanced defence technologies.

During an earlier Defence Ministers’ meeting in May 2025, Rajnath Singh specifically highlighted opportunities involving tank engines and aero engines, while both sides agreed to explore cooperation in areas including automation, AI, cyber and space.

The July 2026 India-Japan Defence Policy Dialogue subsequently reviewed cooperation across defence equipment, maritime technology, technological innovation, cyber security and space.

It would therefore be premature to claim that India and Japan have selected a new major weapons-development project beyond UNICORN.

What has clearly changed is the institutional environment.

Both governments are now actively seeking additional projects rather than treating UNICORN as an isolated transaction.

Defence Industry Forum Could Connect Indian and Japanese Companies

Government laboratories alone cannot sustain a large defence-industrial partnership.

India and Japan have therefore agreed to convene a Defence Industry Forum, creating another mechanism through which defence companies can identify areas for collaboration.

For India, the opportunity lies in combining Japanese technology with the rapidly expanding domestic defence-manufacturing ecosystem.

For Japan, cooperation with Indian industry could provide access to a large defence market and production base at a time when Tokyo is gradually widening international defence-industrial partnerships.

The August 20 discussions went even further by identifying naval shipbuilding and ship design as potential areas for joint development.

The ministers agreed to explore combinations of Japanese technological expertise and Indian production capabilities, including greater utilisation of India’s shipbuilding capacity under the Make in India framework.

That could eventually make naval cooperation one of the strongest industrial components of the partnership.

Veer Guardian 26 Brings Japanese Fighters to India

Technology cooperation is developing alongside closer operational interaction between the two armed forces.

India and Japan are now preparing for Veer Guardian 26, their bilateral fighter exercise.

The 2026 edition will mark an important first: Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter aircraft are expected to deploy to India for the exercise for the first time.

This represents the reciprocal development of an exercise that began in Japan.

The inaugural Veer Guardian 23 was held from January 16 to 26, 2023 at Hyakuri Air Base and surrounding Japanese airspace, with activities also involving Iruma Air Base.

India deployed four Su-30MKI fighters, supported by two C-17 transport aircraft and an IL-78 aerial refuelling aircraft. Around 150 Indian personnel participated.

Japan fielded four F-2 fighters and four F-15 fighters.

The exercise gave Indian Su-30MKI crews an opportunity to operate directly against and alongside two major Japanese fighter types while allowing Japanese pilots to train with one of the Indian Air Force’s principal combat aircraft.

Veer Guardian 26 will reverse the geographical direction of that deployment.

From Familiarisation to Complex Air Combat Training

The latest ministerial discussions indicate that India and Japan want future exercises to move beyond basic familiarisation.

Both countries agreed to increase the complexity and integration of bilateral exercises, including the possible employment of unmanned systems and exercises organised at shorter notice.

That is strategically more significant than simply increasing the number of drills.

Modern interoperability depends on forces learning to operate under common procedures, share operational understanding and conduct increasingly sophisticated missions together.

Repeated fighter exercises can expose aircrew to different tactics, aircraft performance characteristics, command systems and mission-planning methods.

For the Indian Air Force, training against Japanese F-15s and F-2s provides experience against aircraft and tactics different from those encountered during domestic exercises.

For the JASDF, the Su-30MKI offers a similarly distinctive training opponent.

Air, Land and Maritime Exercises Form a Broader Network

Veer Guardian does not operate in isolation.

India and Japan now maintain military engagement across all three services.

The Indian Army and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force conduct Dharma Guardian, while the two navies conduct the Japan-India Maritime Exercise, or JIMEX/JAIMEX.

Both countries also participate in the Malabar naval exercise, alongside the United States and Australia.

The August 20 talks welcomed the continued expansion of Dharma Guardian and JAIMEX while calling for increasingly sophisticated bilateral military activity.

In 2023, India and Japan conducted bilateral exercises involving all three services within the same calendar year for the first time, marking an important stage in the institutionalisation of military cooperation.

Veer Guardian 26 now adds another layer to that progression.

New Maritime Security Agreement Broadens the Framework

The most important new institutional development announced on August 20 was the Memorandum of Arrangement on Maritime Security Cooperation signed by Rajnath Singh and Shinjiro Koizumi.

The arrangement provides a framework for Indian Navy-JMSDF cooperation in areas including:

Maritime Domain Awareness,
Search and Rescue, and
Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.

The ministers also agreed to strengthen cooperation protecting Sea Lines of Communication, supported by naval visits, exercises, personnel exchanges and logistics.

Another practical area is ship maintenance.

India and Japan intend to increase reciprocal access to maintenance and repair facilities and work towards a dedicated ship-repair arrangement.

This fits India’s ambition to position its shipyards and ports as maintenance hubs for friendly foreign navies operating in the Indian Ocean.

Mine Countermeasures Enter the Discussion

The two governments also agreed to strengthen cooperation involving mine countermeasure capabilities.

Naval mines can threaten commercial shipping, naval bases and critical maritime routes while requiring specialised detection and disposal systems.

Mine warfare is therefore directly linked to keeping sea lanes open during a crisis.

India is simultaneously developing new indigenous mine-countermeasure technologies, including autonomous underwater systems, making this a potentially interesting field for future India-Japan technology and operational cooperation.

The current ministerial statement does not announce a specific joint mine-countermeasure development programme, but it identifies the field as an area in which practical maritime-security cooperation should accelerate.

Shipbuilding Opens a Potentially Much Larger Industrial Opportunity

Potential cooperation on naval shipbuilding could ultimately exceed UNICORN in economic and technological significance.

India has substantial public and private shipbuilding capacity and is constructing increasingly sophisticated warships domestically.

Japan possesses advanced ship-design, marine-engineering, electronics and manufacturing expertise.

The Defence Ministers agreed to explore joint development in naval shipbuilding and design, pairing Japan’s technological capabilities with India’s manufacturing base.

No specific warship programme has yet been announced, so this remains exploratory.

Nevertheless, its inclusion in ministerial discussions shows the ambition of the partnership.

A future project involving Indian construction and Japanese technology would represent a major step beyond individual equipment such as UNICORN.

A New Working Group Will Drive Implementation

One recurring problem in international defence cooperation is the gap between political announcements and actual programmes.

India and Japan are attempting to address this by establishing a new Director-General/Joint Secretary-level Working Group.

The body will coordinate operational cooperation, intelligence engagement, equipment projects, technology collaboration and defence-industrial initiatives.

Its importance lies in bringing several strands of the partnership together.

UNICORN requires technology and industry coordination. DRDO-ATLA programmes require research cooperation. Military exercises require operational planning. Shipbuilding requires government, naval and industrial involvement.

A single implementation mechanism could help prevent these initiatives from developing separately.

UNICORN Could Be the Beginning Rather Than the End

For years, India-Japan defence relations expanded more rapidly in exercises and strategic dialogue than in actual equipment cooperation.

UNICORN changes that equation.

The programme gives the two countries a real co-development and production project linked directly to Indian Navy platforms. DRDO and ATLA now have a mandate to deepen technology cooperation, while both governments are actively looking for additional equipment projects.

At the operational level, Veer Guardian 26 will bring Japanese fighters to India for the first time, while the new maritime agreement expands cooperation between the two navies.

Shipbuilding, ship repair, mine countermeasures and a Defence Industry Forum add an industrial dimension that was far less developed during the earlier stages of the partnership.

India and Japan are therefore building three layers of defence cooperation simultaneously: operational interoperability, technology collaboration and industrial integration.

If UNICORN moves successfully from agreement to Indian Navy deployment and the DRDO-ATLA mechanism produces additional projects, the relationship could evolve beyond strategic alignment into a genuine long-term defence technology partnership.

Veer Guardian 26 will provide the operational counterpart to that shift, demonstrating that cooperation is developing not only in laboratories and factories but also between the personnel and combat platforms expected to operate together in an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific.

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References

DD News – India, Japan Sign Maritime Security Pact, Deepen Defence Cooperation
https://ddnews.gov.in/en/india-japan-sign-maritime-security-pact-deepen-defence-cooperation/

Press Information Bureau – Memorandum of Implementation Signed with Government of Japan for Co-development of UNICORN Masts for the Indian Navy
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2073843

Press Information Bureau – India-Japan Joint Statement, July 2026
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2280587

Press Information Bureau – 8th India-Japan Defence Policy Dialogue, July 2026
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2284070

Japan Ministry of Defense – Bilateral Fighter Training VEER GUARDIAN 23
https://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/news/uploads/docs/20221222-2en.pdf

Japan Ministry of Defense – Third Japan-India 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting Joint Statement
https://www.mod.go.jp/en/article/2024/08/0b117f8ac4d42c93299db6c06769c066d4b855eb.html

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