President addresses the passing out cadets at IMA

Dehradun, Dec 9 (UNI) President APJ Abdul Kalam today asked the Armed Forces to equip themselves to combat the technology-driven warfare.

Addressing the passing out parade of cadets at the Indian Military Academy, Dr Kalam said the officers of the Armed Forces, particularly young officers had an important role to play in the country's future.

He said the whole war environment would be a network-centric warfare and it could be electronically-controlled combined with space encounters deep sea encounters, and ballistic missiles encounters. He emphasised that the winner of future warfare would be the officers, who could visualise the strength of the 'enemy', not based on the previous war but based on the current capabilities, and technological advancements in the global scenario.

''National security is born out of two important components.

One is the economic growth and prosperity; second one is the capability to defend the nation against all types of threats. India is progressing on both fronts and Army Officers have roles to play in both'', he said.

Dr Kalam, visualising attacks in all media in the near future, said the country's Armed Force officers would have to get trained in virtual reality-based simulated war-fronts of all terrains and all extreme conditions of warfare and proper counter measure needed to be practiced.

''The future battlefield would require a synergized team work with joint services operation and use of land, aerospace and ocean as important war theatres,'' he said.

Maintaining that few external forces did not want India to succeed economically and become self-reliant in military capability, he said that there would always be a dynamic environment along our borders needing eternal vigilance by our Armed Forces.

''Our soldiers are giving the best part of their youth for the defence of the nation. I am sure very soon you will be providing leadership to such challenging missions,'' he asserted.

A total of 552 cadets including 15 from friendly countries including Bhutan (9), Maldives (4) and Nepal (2) passed out from the Indian Military Academy today.

Earlier, President Kalam reviewed the passing out Parade of the 119th Regular and Allied Courses of IMA in the backdrop of the historic Chetwode Hall. He presented Sword of Honour, the highest prestigious award given to a cadet for his over all best performance, to Ramachandran Prakash, hailing from Chennai and Gold Medal to Sachin Kumar, a local lad.

UNI LPT LL RN1915