India has started 2020 with a series of military tests. On January 1, Army Chief Bipin Rawat was announced as the new chief of Defense Staff (cds), a post the type of which hasn’t existed since India attained independence in 1947. Since January 1, India has test-fired a new submarine-launched missile and a new series of fighter jets. The Trumpet forecasts that India will play a significant role militarily in the end time. The way it has started 2020 supports this forecast.

Before Rawat’s promotion to cds, the role was split between three different chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, each battling for supremacy over the other. Rawat will now head a department of more than 60 people, directly under the defense minister, as well as have power and authority to unite the three military branches of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

This has all been orchestrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who enjoys the largest parliamentary majority since 1984. A perceived threat from China and Pakistan, has led Modi to reform India’s army.

The new cds will organize the armed forces based on the American model, which places all forces in a particular area under one officer. India’s military transformation isn’t just in its structural organization, but also in its weapons of war.

On January 19, India’s Defense Research and Development Organization test-fired a submarine-launched, nuclear-capable ballistic missile off the coast in southeastern India. These missiles are crafted to launch from a fleet of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, which are expected to achieve long-range nuclear capability by 2021.

On January 20, India showcased its Tigershark fighter jet squadron, commissioned by General Rawat. The commissioning ceremony featured four fighters, but a complement of 18 fighters is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Most of the fighters will be capable of carrying a 2.5-ton, air-launched supersonic cruise missile, with 42 older models slated to receive the necessary upgrades to match.

While Prime Minister Modi’s efforts to revamp and streamline the Indian military are partly motivated by hostile neighbors, Bible prophecy reveals that India will be a part of an end-time Asian military alliance.

In our article “Is India in the Bible?”, Trumpet contributor Jeremiah Jacques wrote that India has a vast and young population, much younger than China’s, giving India, “which already has the world’s fastest growing major economy, considerably more economic potential.” He continued, “India also has the world’s fourth-most powerful military, including the second-largest standing military and an advanced array of nuclear weapons.”

With its recent military restructuring, development of advanced weapons, large population and powerful economy, India is primed to become an important part of a prophesied 200 million-man army (Revelation 9:16).

Ezekiel 38:5-6 say this army will include “Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya … Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people ….” In our booklet The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia,’ Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains that Russia will be at the head of this massive army. He writes (emphasis added):

Gomer refers to Japan, which wields some of the world’s most advanced weaponry and technology. Ethiopia and Libya should be translated “Cush” and “Phut.” Some of Cush and Phut migrated to African nations, but the rest settled in parts of India. The context of this passage shows that it refers to modern-day Indians (and perhaps Pakistanis) rather than Africans.

This is significant because India has a population of 1.2 billion people—plus an advanced nuclear arsenal! When you put India and Japan together with Russia and China, it is easy to see how an army of 200 million soldiers could be formed. With other Asian nations joining in, you quickly reach combined populations of 3.5 to 4 billion people! Under extreme circumstances like those described in these end-time prophecies, it is not hard to imagine 1 in 10 or 20 people going to war.

This prophesied army will be vast and powerful, and it will bring cataclysmic death and destruction to Earth, even “to slay the third part of men” (Revelation 9:15). This is why we should watch what is happening with India’s army. Jesus Christ admonished that it was only by watching and praying that we “may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass” in this end time (Luke 21:36).

It is only His return, in power and glory, that will stop the death and destruction that will soon engulf this Earth. He will establish the Kingdom of God and usher in an eternity of peace and happiness for all mankind.

To fully understand this coming Asian conglomerate and how it fits into Bible prophecy, read our free booklet Russia and China in Prophecy, especially Chapter 4, “India: Asia’s Other Economic Powerhouse.”