Bringing civilian agencies like the NDRF into military exercises reflects a whole-of-government approach to disaster response. Discuss its benefits and limits.

In 2026, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) took part for the first time in Tiger Triumph, the India–US tri-service HADR exercise. Its 5th edition was held as a Tabletop Exercise (TTX) at Visakhapatnam [1]. Adding a civilian rescue agency to military planning moves disaster response from "military aid" towards a whole-of-government model. The gains are real, but the gaps in this design are just as clear.

Benefits

• Each agency does what it does best: the military provides airlift and logistics, and NDRF provides specialist rescue. In Operation Maitri (Nepal, 2015), IAF aircraft flew NDRF teams in, and NDRF's urban search-and-rescue team worked alongside an Army field hospital [2].
• Roles are settled before the crisis: planning together sorts out command relationships and procedures in advance. The 2026 edition aims at Combined Joint All-Domain Operations for large-scale HADR [1].
• Agencies learn what the others can do: in Exercise Chakravat 2023, which brought together NDRF, the three Services and state fire services, participants came to understand each other's capabilities and laid the ground for better coordination [3].
• Strategic value: it strengthens India's image as a first responder in the Indo-Pacific and reflects closer India–US maritime cooperation [1].

Limits

• Planning is not tested in the field: a TTX tests decisions, not whether people and supplies actually get there. Chakravat paired its tabletop with a live multi-agency demonstration [3]. Tiger Triumph 2026 did not.
• The "whole" is incomplete: the MEA leads relief abroad through its Rapid Response Cell, which links NDMA, NDRF and the armed forces [2]. Yet the 2026 participant list names neither MEA nor NDMA [1].
• Consent and sovereignty: the UN's Oslo Guidelines treat foreign military assets as a last resort [4], and the Quad's HADR Guidelines require a request for assistance before partners act together [5]. A military-to-military drill cannot decide these political questions.
• Dual-use concern: skills built for joint relief can also serve combat. This risks drawing a civilian agency into strategic signalling.

Putting NDRF in military exercises builds operational synergy, but it becomes truly whole-of-government only when diplomacy, consent rules and field testing are included as well. Future editions should alternate TTX and field phases, include MEA's Rapid Response Cell, and write a formal request-for-assistance step into the scenario. This would make India's disaster response resilient, cooperative and sovereign, in line with the goal of disaster-resilient communities (SDG 11).