New Delhi: Technology is changing the way wars are fought.
Addressing a defence summit in the national capital, Chief of Army Staff General Dhiraj Seth said the soldier on the ground still decides control of territory. He said control of land continues to be the most important measure of military success.
Another major part of Seth’s address was defence self-reliance. The country needs the ability to design, develop, manufacture, sustain and upgrade military systems within the country. India’s defence manufacturing policy has placed emphasis on domestic design, production and exports. The Army chief’s latest comments came days after his official visit to Russia, where he held talks with senior military officials and visited defence institutions.
The September 16-18 visit included talks on military cooperation, training and contemporary military developments, according to the Ministry of Defence.
He said Atmanirbharta has to go beyond manufacturing weapons in India. “Aatmanirbharta must mean design in India, develop in India, manufacture in India, sustain in India, upgrade in India and also make for the world,” he said. Seth had earlier said that the Army’s aim was to “win our wars with indigenous solutions”, making self-reliance one of the five pillars of his VIJAY roadmap.
A technology available to India can also become available to an adversary. “The technology we have can also be available to our enemy. Older systems can gain new capabilities through artificial intelligence, sensors, networking and other technologies. He stated a country involved in a prolonged conflict needs to be able to sustain its military without being restricted by the availability of supplies from other countries. That requires domestic capacity across the entire life cycle of a defence system.
Seth said having access to advanced technology does not automatically provide a lasting military advantage. Having the technology is only the beginning,” he said, emphasising that the real advantage comes from the ability to develop new capabilities fast, adapt them to changing conditions and find ways to counter an opponent’s methods. Seth also said future warfare will not necessarily require every existing weapon system to be discarded in favour of entirely new platforms.
