As a nation battling terrorism and caught in territorial disputes with neighbouring states, it is necessary that India’s armed forces are prepared to fight short-duration, high-intensity battles as well as land-centric, long-duration conflicts. Operation Sindoor was an example of the former, while territorial conflicts are likely to cause the latter, the CDS said. He was speaking at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.
Among the takeaways of Operation Sindoor was the understanding that multi-domain operations will no longer be an option but a necessity, as the effects of one domain will be immediately felt in others, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said. Terrorism and grey-zone warfare will remain a threat, requiring both defensive and offensive responses, he added.
During future conflicts, extensive coordination and control between the Army, Navy, and Air Force alone will not suffice; forces operating in space, cyberspace, and the cognitive domain will also need to be considered, he said.
India registered a “decisive victory” at the end of the four-day conflict, where it was observed that all domains of warfare were used simultaneously with a high tempo. Considering both of India’s adversaries have nuclear weapons, the country cannot allow its level of deterrence to be breached, the CDS said. However, he stopped short of naming either China or Pakistan, news agency PTI reported.
"What kind of threats and challenges should India be prepared for? This should be based on two facts. Both our adversaries—one is a nuclear-weapon state and one is a nuclear-armed state—hence we should not allow that level of deterrence to be breached," he said, without naming Pakistan or China.
"We should be prepared to fight short-duration, high-intensity conflicts to deter terrorism, something like Operation Sindoor. We should be prepared for a land-centric, long-duration conflict because we have land disputes. Yet, we should try and avoid it," PTI quoted the CDS as saying.
The country's top military officer stressed the need to exploit new domains and create asymmetry with a weaker adversary, while not allowing these asymmetries to be exploited by other nations.
CDS Chauhan said that a number of technologies are simultaneously affecting the nature and character of warfare. Earlier, only a few technologies influenced how wars were fought, but now AI, quantum technology, edge computing, hypersonics, and robotics are all in the mix. This is why multi-domain operations will no longer be an option but a necessity.
"This was clearly visible in Operation Sindoor. In a war which lasted only about four days, giving India a decisive victory, all domains of warfare were used simultaneously with a great amount of tempo," he said. Multi-domain operations will also require multi-domain capabilities and cross-domain command and control, he noted. This will require extensive coordination and control between the Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as cyber forces, space forces, and forces operating in the cognitive domain, he asserted.