EVOLUTION of technology has impacted warfare but technological advantage may just be reduced to a tactical level when it is taken away from the larger strategic context and regarded as the “sole driver” of success in a war, Army chief General Manoj Pande said on Wednesday. In his address at a seminar here, he also said technologies are emerging in new unchartered domains, and “revolutionising and establishing a ‘new normal’ in different fields”. General Pande further said that technology has also emerged as the “new strategic arena of competition, driving geo-political powerplays and is being leveraged for weaponisation of many domains, ranging from information to supply chains”. The Army chief was addressing a gathering during a seminar on “Year of Technology Absorption: Empowering the Soldier” organised by a defence think-tank at Manekshaw Centre at Delhi Cantonment. Technology from a warfighting perspective, has undergone significant evolution over the centuries, and has “impacted warfare in a profound manner,” he said.

 

General Pande cited the examples of rifles, railroads, telegraphs and ironclad ships in the 19th-century wars; the machine gun, tank, aeroplane, aircraft carriers and atomic weapons in the 20th-century wars; to the niche technologies that have today permeated into the military domain. They “all highlight examples of how technologies change the face of wars and influence their outcomes”, he said. History shows that armies that have managed to adopt and integrate new technologies have gained advantage on the battlefield and achieved success, he underlined. Infusion of technologies such as computers, radars, code-breaking and aircraft production by the Allies in World War II was instrumental in securing victory for them, while in the early years of the War, it was Germany and Japan which leveraged their industrial and technological capacities to “accrue advantages of scale’, over the Allies, the Army chief added.

 

“On the other hand, technological advantage may just be reduced to a tactical level, when it is taken away from the larger strategic context and regarded as the sole driver of success in war. Vietnam and Afghanistan are examples of the same,” he asserted. “Therefore, understanding of new technologies, harnessing their potential and accruing strategic superiority -- is the essence of leveraging technology from a warfighting perspective,” the Army chief said. The Indian Army is observing 2024 as the ‘Year of Technology Absorption’. The Army chief dwelled on the ethos of ‘atmanirbharta’ that the force is seeking to augment and further achieve in line with the government’s vision of self-reliance in defence. “Technologies continue to evolve. These are emerging in new unchartered domains, are revolutionising and establishing a ‘new normal’ in different fields, are interconnected to one another in different disciplines and are commercially available,” he said.

 

The military-technological landscape today is witness to a “manifold increase in the lethality and accuracy of kinetic instruments and increased proliferation of technologies” such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics, 3D printing and nanotechnology, the Army chief said. He reiterated that emerging technologies are no longer superpower-centric and even non-state actors are gaining access to modern technology, for military use and employing it for “asymmetric leverage in conflict”. He cited how recent conflicts have brought to the fore significant insights on how disruptive and dual-use technologies and their proliferation at unprecedented scale -- are transforming the character of modern wars.