A two-day national-level seminar on “Emerging Technologies and their Impact on Warfighting: 2030s” was organised at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering in Mhow recently under the aegis of Army Training Command (ARTRAC).

The objective of the seminar was to delve into some pivotal emerging and foreseen technologies that will fundamentally alter war-fighting doctrines, tactics and force structures. The scope was obviously vast and speculative. The seminar, due to its finite time-focused on those realms which had a higher probability of manifestation as well as potential to force the future generation to fight differently.

The seminar was aimed to help the armed forces to refine their long-term vision and devote greater time, finances and training effort towards trying to build such fighting capabilities and countermeasures which would keep the forces “future ready” at all times.

The seminar focused on impact of changing global structure on war waging capabilities; creating awareness on the changing combat scenarios due to technological advancements; analysing emerging technologies and their implications on the battlefield; identifying policies and implementation issues for absorption/induction of technologies in the armed forces, etc.

The seminar not only helped in getting various domain experts from Army, Navy, Air Force but also from various prestigious civil institutions like NTRO, IITs and other academic institutions and eminent scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Dr S.S. Sundaram, a distinguished scientist from DRDO, delivered the special address.

Emerging Military Technologies

Science and technology have been closely associated with warfare and the relationship is getting more pronounced with each passing year. The emerging military technologies have been adding new dimensions to the battlespace, enlarging the spectrum of conflict and dramatically raising the quantum and intensity of violence.

The appearance of a new kind of weapon or concept once in a while has triggered a drastic transformation in warfare resulting in a revolution in military affairs (RMA) though the term has been coined much later in early 1990s. The developments in history have had revolutionary impact on the course of warfare over the last three centuries. The emergence of concept of nation state and creation of large-scale national armies, the industrial revolution that enabled maintenance and movement of such large armies, advent of new technologies during World War I and World War II setting the pace for new forms of warfare have all impacted war-fighting; The invention of nuclear weapons with state-of-the-art delivery means are threatening the very viability of conventional wars today.

The exponential growth in the field of electronics and information technologies is stimulating yet another revolution in current times, ushering an Information Age with advanced technological and intelligence systems, making the battle space more transparent. A large number of technologies are in different stages of evolution which are set to impact warfare in every dimension, viz land, sea, air, space and cyber space. A historical perspective also suggests that any future conflict will be as different from World War II as it was from World War I and all others that preceded it.

The technological developments and RMA have also substantially changed the ways in which future wars will be fought. Hence, the need to analyse the contours of the future battlefield and develop new ‘Skill Sets’ to cope with the emerging nuances of uncertainty become criticalities for effective warfighting. This may also call for a review of not only existing notions about military leadership, doctrines and concepts, but more importantly, the training to meet future challenges.

It was realised that the advancements in technologies which are taking place in the civil domain are also going to impact the defence forces and defence-related technologies in a major way. This aspect has been a matter of discussion as part of various studies and forums at ARTRAC. To further deliberate on this important issue a necessity was felt to organise a forum of eminent personalities and experts from specialised fields to discuss in detail this subject and take decisions/actions at various levels in order to prepare India as a nation for futuristic conflicts.

The writer is serving as Colonel GS (Training), Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow