The Minister for Defence A.K. Antony has said modern-day communication tools have reduced the gap between strategic, operational and tactical domains. Inaugurating the two-day International Seminar and Exposition Defcom India 2012 in New Delhi, he said the single biggest challenge facing societies is the vulnerability of communication and network devices to attacks, or threats in the electronic, cyber as well as the physical domain.

Over the last few years, some progress has been made in developing a tactical communication system (TCS). It is an ideal opportunity for the Indian industry and R&D organisations to come forward and provide latest solutions to the challenges being faced in TCS.

Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh, said that the TCS network has to be dynamic and resilient with multiple redundancies. While the transition to the TCS environment will be gradual, it is important that the soldier in the battlespace does not have to deal with multiple communication devices. Instead, what is required are multiple RF equipped devices. The overall aim should be to develop reliable, mobile, high-speed convergence networks that are inter-operable with even legacy systems and function in a joint services environment.

Lt General S.P. Kochchar, Signal Officer in Chief, said that the challenge of developing TCS lies in communication reaching the war-fighter. He said that the Corp of Signals is the second largest network provider in the country and the third largest telecom service provider.