Artificial Intelligence is going to transform the battlefield in all aspects and the Indian armed forces have made significant progress in this sphere, Chief of Defence Staff General NS Raja Subramani said at the NDTV Defence Summit 2026 on Sunday.
AI is going to transform the battlefield in all aspects, whether it be planning, logistics, decision-support or intelligence. For that, you require compute, data, networks, and skilled personnel. As far as compute is concerned, the defence forces are working very closely with the national AI mission and MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India). AI has already been implemented in some areas, especially OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) and predictive intelligence. “We are looking at making our legacy systems smarter by infusing AI and are ensuring the new systems we procure have it. AI should also be able to act at the edge, it is not enough to have it at the centre – at the battle edge, where AI is required, the soldiers need to have it. So I can assure you that the armed forces are looking at it in a very, very serious manner… It will offer options to the commander, and it is up to the commander to take that decision. “However, the challenge in terms of AI overstepping, trying to hijack what you are trying to do, or our opponents trying to use AI to crack our defences or intrude into our cyber networks is obviously real. For that, when we use our AI systems, we will ensure that there are adequate guardrails. We have to make sure that they are not poisoned. Third, we have to develop our own sovereign AI systems. we in the military are working on small language models which are appropriate to our context,” he added While some already exist.
Because of the plethora of advantages that it offers,” he explained, no force or organisation today can afford to do without AI.
India’s top military leader noted that he sees AI as “an opportunity and then as a challenge”. Speaking to NDTV’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal, Managing Editor Shiv Aroor and Senior Executive Editor Aditya Raj Kaul, General Subramani said, “All three services have progressed a great deal in terms of how to go about it. READ | Russian Envoy Claims “A Freudian Slip” Revealed US Fears Of India’s Rise Data, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) said, was siloed between the three services, but they have made efforts to ensure that their data schemas are correct and sharing can happen. We are working with private sector players as well as the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) on this,” he said. To a question on AI going rogue and the possibility of it being used against India, especially by countries that are at the bleeding edge of the technology, the CDS said he is cognisant of the challenges that it poses. READ | “Technology Must Be Owned In India”: Samtel CEO On Viksit Bharat Goal “Firstly, in the utilisation of AI, we have to be very clear that it will offer us options, courses of action, productivity, and efficiency – but it will not be making the decision on behalf of the commander. The General said the forces are also taking measures to ensure they are not impacted by the threats on the cyber front and can detect and repel any attacks if they do occur.
