Military Strength and Capabilities Essential for Peace, Says Army Chief

Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande addressed the AIMA National Leadership Conclave on Tuesday, asserting that military strength and capabilities are necessary to prevent wars. He said that the security of the nation cannot be outsourced or dependent on the largesse of others. Gen Pande emphasized the importance of hard power in protecting and furthering a nation's interests.The Army chief identified four key drivers of the Indian Army's transformation efforts: unprecedented trends in the geo-strategic landscape, limitless potential of disruptive technologies, transforming character of modern wars, and profound changes in the socio-economic domain. He also highlighted the impact of supply chain disruptions and weaponisation of denial regimes during the pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.Gen Pande asserted that the Army's vision for the future is to transform into a modern, agile, adaptive, technology-enabled, and self-reliant force capable of deterring and winning wars in a multi-domain operational environment. The transformation roadmap includes force restructuring and optimisation, modernisation and technology infusion, improvement of systems, processes and functions, human resource management, and promoting jointness and integration with sister Services.The Army is pursuing new and niche technologies for absorption into warfighting systems through a focused capability development and sustenance roadmap that conforms to its commitment to atmanirbharta (self-reliance). Gen Pande underlined the importance of creating an effective defence-industry ecosystem in India to achieve self-reliance.Key areas for technology infusion span across all domains of warfare. Procurements include light strike vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, light specialist vehicles, bulletproof jackets, border surveillance systems, nano drones, swarm drones, loiter munitions, new artillery platforms, night sights for small arms, hand-held thermal imagers, software-defined radios, terrain-specific electronic warfare systems, logistic drones, Light Tanks, Future Infantry Combat Vehicles, Medium Altitude Long Endurance RPAS and LUH. Gen Pande said that 120 indigenous projects are underway to develop and absorb 45 niche technologies identified for military application. "Indigenise to Modernise" shall remain the mantra for capability development.