India’s nuclear capability will not be considered a separate domain but will be part of cognitive war, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan said on Thursday.
“We don’t consider nuclear weapons as war fighting, but it’s a deterrent in mind, hence it will be part of the cognitive domain. Nuclear domains as such don’t form a domain,” Gen Chauhan said while responding to a panel discussion during the Tri-Service seminar ‘Ran Samwad’ that is being held at the Air Force Training Command, Bengaluru, with the core focus of building a roadmap for preparing the Indian military for multi-domain operations (MDO).
The CDS also pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said after Operation Sindoor that India will not be deterred by nuclear blackmail.
At the moment, the evolving concept of MDO comprises just six components encompassing the land, air, sea, cyber, space and cognitive domains.
According to SIPRI, a leading think-tank on arms trade, nine countries—the US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel—were believed to be in the possession of nuclear weapons in 2025, together holding on to about 12,121 nuclear weapons, of which 9,585 are considered to be potentially operationally available. About 3,904 of these warheads are deployed with operational forces, while about 2,100 are kept in a state of high operational alert.
It has been reported that a fallout of the ongoing conflicts in Russia-Ukraine and US-Iran could be that a growing number of countries may move towards declaring themselves nuclear-armed or enhancing their nuclear deterrence capabilities, driven by increasing global insecurity and the breakdown of traditional arms control treaties, indicating a “new normal" of nuclear proliferation.
There are also concerns that many countries will endeavour to change their nuclear stance.