The Indian Army must be ready to dominate in areas such as surveillance capabilities, space assets, long-range precision strikes, autonomous systems and cyber operations, as modern conflicts increasingly rely on remote power, observed Lt Gen Adosh Kumar, Director General, Artillery, Indian Army.
Delivering a keynote address at the third edition of the Gen S F Rodrigues Memorial Seminar on `Non-Contact Warfare: Capability Building Imperatives for the Indian Army' on Friday, he observed that the age of non-contact warfare is becoming the new normal as nations devise strategies to win wars without incurring casualties in close combat.
"Contact on the battlefield may no longer be a prerequisite for decisive action. The age of non-contact warfare is becoming the new normal, and nations around the world have been devising strategies for winning wars without incurring casualties in close combat. As far as we are concerned, the transformation to non-contact warfare was already happening," Lt Gen Kumar said.
The non-contact warfare allows militaries to degrade or disable opposing forces while keeping their own personnel safe, he said.
The Indian Army must not only adapt to this transformation but must be fully prepared and geared to operate, dominate and prevail in this environment, Lt Gen Kumar added.
"The lessons from recent conflicts, that is, how contact-heavy units can be neutralised by non-contact precision strikes, have a direct resonance for India. Op Sindoor has demonstrated the power of surveillance, precision and information dominance when employed in synergy. Our space-based assets provided us with timely information that allowed us to anticipate rather than react," he said.
India's precision strike vectors employed at longer ranges created devastating effects, Kumar said.
"Hence, our ability to obtain and decisively act on precise information ensured that while we retained clarity of mind, conversely, our adversary was clouded with confusion. That was non-contact at work. But let me also add that what we achieved in Op Sindoor is just the beginning, not the end. To remain ahead of the curve, we must not merely repeat but must take a quantum leap forward across the spectrum of non-kinetic and kinetic capabilities," he added.
Surveillance is the foundation and backbone of non-contact warfare, Lt Gen Kumar said.
"Wide area imaging, electronic intelligence, payloads, launch on demand systems, these all must be indigenous, reliable and resilient. Equally, the reliability of our space-based positioning and navigation independent of foreign networks must be ensured," he added.
—With PTI inputs
