The age of non-contact warfare is becoming the new normal, as nations devise, said Lt Gen Adosh Kumar, Director General, Artillery, Indian Army, on Friday at a seminar. He then added that in the present day, modern warfare/conflicts, the nations are relying on remote power such as surveillance capabilities and cyber operations, and the Indian Army must be ready to be dominant in these areas. The senior Army official was speaking at the third edition of the Gen S F Rodrigues Memorial Seminar on ‘Non-Contact Warfare: Capability Building Imperatives for the Indian Army'.
"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.
Surveillance, cyber operations, space assets, long-range precision strikes, and autonomous systems are the remote powers on which the nations are relying at the present time of modern conflicts. As per the DG Artillery, these tools will allow the world's militaries to degrade or disable opposing forces while keeping their troops safe, and India must adopt this transformation and be fully prepared.
"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.
"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," the Lt Gen added.
"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.
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