India’s Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday addresses Ran Samvad, the first Tri Services Seminar at Army War College, Mhow of Madhya Pradesh, where he said that there is an increased propensity amongst nations and governments to use force to achieve political objectives. Talking about Operation Sindoor, CDS General Chauhan said it was a modern conflict from which Indian forces learned a number of lessons, and most of them are under implementation while some have been implemented. The CDS added that the operation is still on.
Short Wars, Big Outcomes
Addressing the conference, CDS General Chauhan hoped that the seminar, apart from technology, will also focus upon what kind of wars will happen in the future. “There is an increased propensity amongst nations and governments to use force, and this is happening because political objectives today can be achieved by short-duration conflicts…I see is a lack of distinction between war and peace, this particular era, which we knew in the past of declared wars, I think that’s all over. Contemporary warfare today is a kind of continuum of five C’s- competition, crisis, confrontation, conflict and combat, between wars,” said the CDS.
The Chief of Defence Staff further added that the importance of people has taken centerstage in today’s war. “In the past wars, because of territory and ideology, people and soldiers were sacrificed… an important trend I think we can debate is the matrices of victory and how we perceive victory…In the past, matrices of victory were probably defined by losses inflicted in terms of men and equipment. In 1971, we had 95,000 Pakistanis captured…But in today’s warfare, probably the new matrices of warfare or victory are the speed and tempo of operations, effects of long-range precision strikes,” said CDS General Anil Chauhan.
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CDS On Integration Of Weapons
CDS General Anil Chauhan also talked about the recent tests carried out by the Defence Research and Development Organisaion. “Two or three days back, you would have heard about DRDO testing a particular integrated system in which there were QRSAM, VSHORADS and 5-kilowatt lasers; they were all getting combined into one. We’ll have to look at multi-domain ISR, integration of ground, air, maritime, undersea, space, sensors, all becoming a key necessity and integrating them,” he said.
He said that for a vast country like India, a project of this magnitude will require a whole-of-nation approach. He exuded confidence that Indians will do it at a minimal and very affordable cost.
CDS Chauhan On ‘Sudarshan Chakra’
Talking about India’s air defence shield Sudarshan Chakra, which is India’s own Iron Dome or Golden Dome, the CDS highlighted that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a mention of this in his 15th August speech. “He (PM Modi) said that he expects it to be rolled out by 2035. Over here, I think the aim is to develop a system to protect India’s strategic, civilian and nationally important sites, and it will act both as a shield as well as a sword. It will entail the development of robust infrastructure and processes for the detection, acquisition, and neutralisation of the enemy’s air vectors, including the use of soft skills and hard skills, both kinetic and direct energy weapons…” said the CDS.
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CDS On ‘Shastra’ And ‘Shaastra’
Talking about the vision of Viksit Bharat, CDS General Anil Chauhan said that India needs to be ‘Shashastra’, ‘Suraksit’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar’, not only in technology, but also in ideas and in practice. The CDS said that there is a need to increase awareness on all fragments of the society on doctrinal and conceptual aspects of how war is fought and practical and actual war fighting techniques and tactics.
“We have always spoken about ‘Shastra’ and ‘Shaastra’ in the same breath…They were actually the two blades of the same sword…We know that a combination of military strategy and warriors is essential to win, and the foremost and best example of this is the Mahabharata and the Gita. We are aware that Arjuna was the greatest warrior of all time, yet he needed a Krishna to guide him towards victory…Similarly, we had Chandragupta who needed the wisdom of Chanakya…,” said the CDS.
‘Peace Without Power Is Utopian’: CDS
The Chief of Defence Staff added that India has been a land of Gautam Buddha, Mahavir Jain and Mahatma Gandhi, all champions of non-violence. “India has always stood on the side of peace. We are a peace-loving nation, but don’t get mistaken, we cannot be pacifists. I think peace without power is utopian. I like to state a Latin quote which translates, ‘if you want peace, prepare for war’,” said CDS General Anil Chauhan.