Events On Unsettled Borders Are Trailers Of Future Conflict: Army Chief

New Delhi, Feb 3: Events being played along India’s “unsettled borders” are trailers of a future conflict, Army Chief Gen M. M. Naravane said on Thursday, adding “It is for us to visualise the battlefield contours of tomorrow, based on these trailers”.

The Army Chief was virtually delivering the inaugural address at Pragyan Conclave, organised by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) on ‘Contours of Future Wars and Counter measures’.

“We are already witnessing trailers of future conflicts. They are being enacted daily on the information battlefield, in the networks and cyber space. They are also being played along, our yet unsettled and active borders. It is for us to visualise the battlefield contours of tomorrow, based on these trailers,” he said.

In a veiled reference to China, he said that some nations are challenging the globally accepted norms and the Rules Based Order.

“This challenge has manifested in various forms of creeping aggression and opportunist actions to alter the status-quo, keeping the threshold below all out war,” he said.

Gen Naravane further said that India’s adversaries shall continue with their efforts, to achieve their strategic aims, short of conflict, by use of Grey Zone activities, in the political, military and economic domains, and do so in a “collusive manner.”

“We face unique, substantial and multi-domain challenges. Disputed borders with nuclear neighbours, coupled with State sponsored Proxy War, stretches our security apparatus and resources,” he said.

General Naravane emphasised that the developments in Afghanistan again brought to focus, the use of proxies and non-State actors to decisive effects.

“These actors thrive on local conditions, innovatively exploit low cost options, to devastating impact and create conditions, that limit the full use of sophisticated capabilities, available to the state,” he said.

Talking about the paradigm shift in warfare, use of disruptive technologies and non-contact warfare, Gen Naravane said, “We are witnessing conflicts increasingly transcending, time, space and force dimensions, and enveloping new frontiers. These wars blur the distinction, between combatants and non-combatants, front and rear, often avoid direct military engagements, and resort to extensive use of proxy actors.

“I wish to reiterate that in future conflicts, the troops, on the forward-most locations, ready and in a high state of alertness, may not be the ones to face the first wave of aggression,” added the Army Chief. He said the events in 2020 have been testimony to the diversity of security threats in all domains, and this has brought the spotlight towards, non-contact and grey-zone warfare.

There are ongoing hostilities between States, in the Cyber, Information, Sub-conventional and Hybrid domains, without a formal pronouncement of war, added Naravane. The Army Chief said that to meet the challenges, the Indian Army, along with the other two Services, is undertaking a number of initiatives to stay one step ahead.

“We are honing our capabilities, to undertake multi-domain operations. The focus is to exploit the potential of these domains, to create strategic effects on the adversary,” he said. Gen Naravane said the creation of Defence Space Agency, Defence Cyber Agency, and the Armed Forces Special Operations Division, are steps to synergise resources and expertise, and build integrated capabilities in these domains. “We are laying great emphasis on innovation and technologies, such as Quantum Computing and Communications, AI and ‘Drone Swarms’, and military leveraging of emerging and disruptive domains,” Gen Naravane said. He said that military doctrines and concepts have struggled to keep pace with this change and stay relevant. The military lexicon has expanded, and traditional definitions have undergone a review. The Army Chief reiterated the importance of conventional hard power, despite a sea change in strategies adopted in a modern warfare.

“Hard Power has always been relevant, and will continue to play an important part in the future, albeit in new ways, adapting to the changing strategic context,” he said. The Army Chief said the ceasefire on the Line of Control continues to hold, because India negotiated from a position of strength.