Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that India must stay prepared for short and long wars as new technologies have transformed the nature of warfare and it is hard to predict how long a conflict can drag on, adding that precision-guided weapons and real-time intelligence were among the factors that have emerged as the cornerstone of victory.
Wars, he said, could stretch from a few months to years, and the country needs to rethink how it will fight in the future.
“In today’s era, it is very difficult to predict when a war will end. We must be prepared for every situation. We must be prepared so that our surge capacity is sufficient. If any war stretches for two months, four months, a year, two years or even five years, then we should be fully prepared for it,” Singh said at Ran Samwad, a top military conclave on the impact of technology on warfare, in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh.
The sheer numbers of soldiers or the size of the weapon stockpile are no longer enough, he said. “Cyber warfare, artificial intelligence, unmanned aerial vehicles, and satellite-based surveillance are shaping the wars of the future. Precision-guided weapons, real-time intelligence, and data-driven information (for formulating strategy) have now become the cornerstone of success in any conflict.”
Modern battles are no longer confined to land, sea, and air, and now extend to outer space and cyberspace, the defence minister said, adding that satellite systems, anti-satellite weapons, and space command centres are the new instruments of power.
{{/usCountry}}Modern battles are no longer confined to land, sea, and air, and now extend to outer space and cyberspace, the defence minister said, adding that satellite systems, anti-satellite weapons, and space command centres are the new instruments of power.
{{/usCountry}}Technology, he said, is advancing at such a pace that by the time one fully grasps an innovation, another emerges , completely altering the course of warfare.