The topic raises the question – How could we smartly leverage the intersect of emerging technologies with our growing integration in thought and action to take our combat worthiness and combat preparedness to a new high. This is a proposition that is as exciting as it is salient, if we are to gain secure strategic military advantage with our competitors and our adversaries, especially so in an era of growing military burdens and stagnant shrinking budgets, this seems to be the only salvation. A full-fledged technological embrace, fusion of thoughts and structures and our entire approach to integration in joint war fighting so that we, in consequence, produce a single unified paradigm to address the adversaries.

I shall first try and place before you what in my view is the nature and staggering scale of the challenge both in the technological domain and in the domain of integration of joint war fighting. Thereafter, in all honesty, I shall voice some concerns and draw collective attention to the deficits that plague our thoughts and actions in the Indian system and I hope to end on a note of optimism by bringing to the fore the many things driven by this realisation that we in the Indian army and the Army Training Command (ARTRAC).

I presume the other two Services also have, in the last two to three years, enabled us to brace up to the challenge. So first I will address the challenge, then deficit and, thirdly, the actions that are underway to give this whole project of technological embrace and an integrated approach to war fighting added impetus and fillip.

The Challenge of Integration

Let me first take the domain of jointness. The point that I wish to make here is, even as we are celebrating and reaping the fruits of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)-Department of Military Affairs (DMA) paradigm that we have recently embraced and one which I will admit is path-breaking indeed, in my view, the CDS-DMA paradigm that we have got in many ways is even more powerful than the US Goldwater-Nichols Act. Yet, we must pause to reflect on the fact that such integration and joint war fighting potential, which will flow from the CDS-DMA structure will suffice only for ‘industrial era’ military so we are already a decade or two behind.

‘Digital era’ militaries, and we are all into the digital era, are already focusing on integrating space and cyber with the traditional domains. We are still integrating land, air and sea, whereas, the whole paradigm has taken a new shift. The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the UK is a good example. It has been set up, having seen what they have been integrating  land, air and sea over the last two to three decades. They realized it was not good enough so the entire SFC has been set up to achieve transition from an ‘industrial era’ military to a ‘digital era’ military. China’s experiment with the PLA’s Strategic Support Force is similar. So the challenge in the era of jointness is really this – that we have a long road that has to be travelled in terms of thoughts, structures and actions to transit from an ‘industrial era’ jointness to a ‘digital era’ integration. In sum, this is the challenge in the realm of integrated war fighting.

The Challenge of Technology

In the realm of technology, there are a number of examples from the recent past, from Balakot to Aramco, to what happened in Idlib and now reinforced in Armenia and Ajerbaijan, that strategic military competition is increasingly being expressed through the medium of technology. In the crafting of our strategic military futures, therefore, we took into account whole lot of factors – geo-strategic, threats, intentions. Technology now has to emerge as the central pillar. We sometimes tend to forget that on our northern borders, China is a mighty adversary, but it is an adversary, which is a technology super power – one whose economic zoom and military gallop has been driven by deep civil-military fusion. The 5G is a very good example of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) partnering with the centers of excellence in science and technology to produce a commercial proposition of global standards as also an instrument of sophisticated geo-political influence and control. That is how deep civil-military fusion is and that is how potently sophisticated is the Chinese approach to technology and combining both commercial payoffs and military outcomes.

We have a very intense and a very proximate technological challenge right there on our northern borders. If we are to brace up to the same, it cannot be business as usual. Not only the search for technology but also agile bureaucracies, which enable these technologies. Unfortunately, we have bureaucracies, which are coming in the way of such enablement. We will never get to technological equity unless the bureaucracies become agile – here I refer to both civil and military bureaucracies.

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The third point is the combined impact of disruption and convergence in technology. Disruption is when technology accelerates along a particular line. So, 5G, Big Data, artificial intelligence (AI) –  these are disruptions in individual domains. But what is now happening is that these disruptive technologies, which are already altering the character of war are fusing or converging with dramatic effect. The result is what we have seen in the recent conflicts. We have seen a fundamental transformation in the character of war, the combined arms balance, the tone and tenor of our operational art and the nature of the physical fight. Until now, soldiers like you and me said there is a text and context of the fight. While the companies’ and squadrons’ battles constitute the text, technologies and many other factors are the context. We took pride in the fact that the context was right but it could never fundamentally alter the text.

Recent battles in Idlib and Armenia – Azerbaijan should show to us that technology now has the prowess of altering the text. That is how technology can bring about dramatic change. To illustrate this point let me give you two to three examples. If the future is about autonomous weapons and algorithm warfare and that is what people are talking about, better and more adaptive algorithms, a military Internet of Things (IOT) is essential. Such a military IOT will lie at the convergence of AI, Big Data and 5G – the brain, fuel and sensors of such a system. This is no longer in the realm of imagination. China is erecting a military IOT on the northern borders. Idlib is a very good example of three independent technologies – namely swarming, electronic warfare (EW) systems of the nature of Koral and semi-active lasers and micro munitions combining with dramatic effect so that in an engagement of a couple of hours you had 151 tanks, 100 armoured vehicles, 86 canon systems, a divisional headquarters, couple of aircrafts, drones and 3,000 Syrian soldiers dead. Such is the impact of convergence of technologies.

The war between Azerbaijan and Armenia for the Nagarno Karabakh region, has reinforced drone supremacy and taken it to a new high. The obvious conclusions for the traditional players in the combined arms balance – infantry, armour  and artillery – is this. Without adequate sensors, without EW cover and counter-drone weaponry, armour, artillery and infantry will facing big trouble. You simply cannot survive in the battlefield just by having more guns, more armour and more infantry. You have to have a very deft combination of sensors, EW cover and counter-drone weaponry or you shall not survive. The great prowess of the drone-artillery complex has come to the fore. Drones were employed in this conflict across the range for Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, reconnaissance (ISTAR), as also post-strike damage assessment (PSDA) in Operation Springshield 2020, in which the Turkish military faced off with the Syrian Army.

The unmanned aerial systems (UAVs) have been combined with indirect fire to produce great effect. The use of drones to target road-mobile ballistic missiles has come to the fore. In our context, the prospect of targeting the rocket force with this drone artillery complex has been thrown up. The Bayrakltar drones saw huge successes. They rendered the sophisticated air defence (AD) systems like the Pantsir, OSA-AK and Stella, irrelevant. Loiter ammunition of the Israeli kind targeted and took out S-300s. S-300s and S-400s are now vulnerable. The only answer to ensure survivability is a network-centric AD system with a complete air picture and we know how difficult it is to achieve this. So the vulnerabilities of the traditional military to the drone artillery complex, the EW systems, the counter-drone systems has come dramatically to the fore. The last phase of the conflict did emphasise the traditional concepts like fire and manoeuvre and the role of the traditional arms still remains valid, so the text has not gone away, but the text must wake up to the fact that it is seriously challenged by the context.

Scale of the Challenge and Deficits

That much about the challenges in integration, challenges with technology and the many subparts of technology in terms of disruption, convergence what all is happening. There is also the concurrent challenge in the domain of pure material sciences as we transit from this ‘industrial era’ military to a ‘digital era’ military. Deng Xiaoping had famously remarked that “the Middle East may have oil but China has rare earths.” In the 1980s, China took on this initiative to process rare earths and, today, while India and China are equally proficient in stocking of rare earths, but in processing we are dependent on them. In the ‘digital era’ what steel was to the ‘industrial era’ rare earths will be to the ‘digital era.’ All your precision guided munitions (PGM), night vision devices (NVD), satellites, communication equipments, opto-electronics, will all come from rare earths, where we have substantially lagged.

May I also underline the fact that if we are to emerge ascendant in the strategic military competition of the future, we do not have the luxury of an either or option – either technology or jointness. The last revolution in military affairs (RMA) is a very striking example because it was as much about organization adeptness as about technological equity. In Afghanistan, we saw that a CIA operator on top of a mule could cue a B2 strategic bomber to the caves of Tora Bora. Intelligence, traditional instruments of statecraft, the mule and the most sophisticated B2 strategic bomber – were all integrated to dramatic effect. In Iraq, you had a tank or a Bradley commander directing close air support of the F35 on to an emerging tank column directly from him to the F35 and not through all the complex structures like many militaries like ours have. What we saw in terms of extraordinary precision targeting and the elimination of enemy weapon systems would not have happened without changes brought about by the Goldwater-Nichols Act. In some areas there has to be a complete breaking down of silos and a complete convergence of technology. Complete dissolution of silos in the three Services even taken to the inter agency domain.

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A big lesson for India is that we were bypassed by RMA simply because of our refusal to get joined. The principal challenge, today, in my mind is to make the successful transition from an ‘industrial era’ military to a ‘digital era’ force. That is a central challenge. To enable this there has to be complete civil-military fusion. The days of coordination, synergies and all those terms that we keep using, are gone. There has to be complete dissolution of silos in thoughts, structures, attitudes and actions – not only integration of the three Services but a wider inter-agency compact, complete cross pollination of talent no matter where it comes from. It could from Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), from defence public sector undertakings (DPSU), from start ups, private sector, technology entrepreneurs, dreamers or  software whiz kids. The military simply has no option. We have to go in for talent from anywhere. Just see what the PLA is doing. They have opened 160 defence laboratories across civil universities in China. They have launched a global hunt for talent. As far back as 2010, Prof Xian Peng was sent by the PLA on a sponsorship to the Heidelberg University in Austria. He did some work in advance quantum technologies and has today designed the quantum radar and is working on quantum technology for China.

Look at the long term strategic thinking, the resolve, the investments in talents across the globe. We will have to do similar. There has to be a massive change in policy framework and attitudinal orientations. In our case it has to be connectivity and security and not connectivity or security. That is unfortunately where our debate is stuck. We have to move to software or quantum enabled encryptions. That is what militaries all over the world are doing. We cannot be satisfied with one or two apps but we have to churn out a million apps. We have to get big in the world of military apps. We have to develop an array of coders and programmers. We cannot have these legacy frameworks of AFNET not talking to AD. This cannot be sustained any longer. A good example is outer space. Despite having a fairly advanced space programme, because of lack of civil-military fusion, there is a paucity of dedicated military satellites. We must now explore the options of commercial launch for military use or invest in systems like high space UAVs, which will give us persistent surveillance for the tactical battle area (TBA). We must bring cyber capacities to the field and not resident in the national capital. We must study the impact of quantum on cyber because quantum is changing the very nature of cyber philosophy – moving it from primacy in offence to primacy in defence.

We have a long way to go but we have begun some focused actions on multiple pathways in the Indian Army. Through integration, civil military fusion, technological convergence, attitudinal orientation make-overs, etc, to enable the transition from an ‘industrial era’ to a ‘digital era’, we have begun taking the first baby steps.

We are revamping the entire professional military training (PME) framework from the National Defence Academy (NDA) to the National Defence College (NDC) through a study ordered by the CDS, so that we produce soldiery ready for the ‘digital era’. We are laying great emphasis on excellence in niche capacities. In the Indian army, we have about 100 officers doing courses abroad in the best universities of the world – Cranfield, Harvard, New York State – in courses like AI, 5G, Big Data, Gun design, tank technology. This is actually happening today. B.Tech/ M.Tech courses are being comprehensively transformed to one of talent management, audit and delivery. Our B.Tech graduates are now audited for what they will give back to the Services. Our M.Techs will be audited. They will produce programmes that are of ‘here and now’ relevance to the Indian Army.  We have, in the last two to three years, due to the work of a lot of people – Gen Bipin Rawat, Gen Subrata Saha, Gen AK Channan and whole lot of people – some remarkable products are coming to the fore. We have a low light imagery system going, which will transform the world of image intensification, a ramjet system, which will enhance existing artillery gun ranges by 10 to 20 kilometers. We are investing greatly in offensive drone operations. In terms of swarming, the numbers that we swarm, the capacities in terms of EW systems, precision targeting and the whole business of cooling which is peculiar to drone operations. We have invested in high space UAVs in collaboration with IIT Chennai and IIT Kanpur for better persistent surveillance. We have begun the preliminary work on a military IOT. We are getting a detailed project report (DPR) going.

Soon we will have a proof of concept at the Military College of Telecom Engineering (MCTE) and in some time in the future we will move to deployment. We have invested Rs 5 crores in an AI lab at MCTE and Rs 3 crores in a quantum lab in MCTE.

Big time investments have been made in quantum technologies, both for electronic algorithms to replace these legacy cipher systems as also in securing our networks through the quantum random number generation. We have set up our own laboratory for ballistic and material sciences at College of Military Engineering (CME) Pune at a cost of Rs 3 crores. Our young officers have the liberty or the facility to explore the fusion of different materials and concepts. In consequence, you had Maj Anoop Mishra producing the SarvatraKavach, a ballistic helmet, mine shoes and all. Indian minds exploring with Indian materials in Indian laboratories. Until a year back, we used to do the same thing in a university in Switzerland or UK. Now we are doing it here. We are producing products that will meet immediate needs along the northern borders before the next summers. The fact that we have the best software talent in the world, the lowest data development cost, it is indeed confounding why we should not be leading in algorithm warfare.  We have a long way to go but we are seriously looking at algorithm warfare. We are investing in 3D/4D printing to fine tune our supply chain management and ensure inventory reduction. In robotics, we are investing in the robot mules for carriage of loads in the deserts and high altitudes; humanoids to take care of high risk missions. The Indian Army has got intellectual property rights (IPR) in 20 products across the technology spectrum, which will help us with revenue generation in the years to come and will also give us weight in the strategic military sphere.

Not only structural reform but also cultural transformation is being undertaken because we know culture eats structure for breakfast. In terms of our outreach to the private sector, we are saying we need you, we are reaching out to them. We are promoting start ups. We have the Soldier IDEX now – if a soldier who wishes to offer a product, we will fund his experimentation. Consultancy programmes are on offer. If military officers in service offer to code a programme or do something of a technological nature, we will pay them for their services in addition to their pay. A slew of measures have been undertaken to address this issue of converging technology with our evolution and integration. In sum, I you  that the Indian armed forces, in general , and the Indian army, in particular, are determined to give a comprehensive fillip to technological embrace, even as we evolve along the integration path. There are obstacles and road blocks but we do know that the only way to address change is to plunge head on into it. We have fully resolved to make a successful and speedy transformation to a smart, agile military for the ‘digital era’.

The post DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION – Embrace Emerging Technologies and Integrate appeared first on IMR.

Based on the Introductory Remarks made at Digitisation & Networking in the Armed Forces 2020 Webinar, 21 Nov 2020.

The Indian Air Force has been part of the AFNET network for quite some time. Both the Air Force and Navy have been implementing network-centric operations for some time and we have gained a lot of experience in such operations. Two things generally come to our mind. Network Centric Warfare (NCW) is totally a different ball game.

It is actually a totally new domain in terms of transformation. Is it just technology or is it a problem solver?  I think we need to understand that better. It is not a new military technology but a new way of thinking, organizing and fighting wars.

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NCW is an all-encompassing technology, doctrine and organization to radically change the style of warfare. What it gives us is speed of command, self-synchronization and the concept of shooters replacing much of existing lexicon. In the age of military transformation, the NCW concept has established a framework to facilitate an evolutionary cultural change, process and doctrine for warfare. It takes a holistic approach for warfighting, based on tenets of warfare, and capitalizes on the technical advances with distributed computing and networks. NCW makes a fundamental shift from the independent entities or platforms to systems approach where the actions of one component effect the whole system. NCW does not remove the fog or friction of war, but reduces them integrating all the moving parts into a more robust and effective fighting team. Weapon platforms will be an integral part of the whole because some or all platforms will produce a greater effect than the independent platforms. According to Metcalf’s Law, the value of a network increases exponentially as a number of users increase while networking.

Shift in Warfare

The information technologies available today brings the multiplying factor of Metcalf’s Law applied to war fighting to the NCW concept. A number of shits are taking place in warfare, namely:

”              From platform-centric to network-centric.

”              From independent sensors to integrated sensors.

•             From need-based information to common information grid.

•             From centralized operations to distributed operations.

Network-centric Operations

To illustrate what we understand by net NCW and how we implement it – we have a ground network which is well established; there are various communications and radar sensors hooked up together in a network; we have satellites, which link up giving us communication redundancy and now we have aircraft flying which talk to each other. If we have two packages flying, they talk to each other. Then we have the AWACS in the air, which talks to aircrafts, to the packages and to the ground network. Over that we have the ability of any aircraft in the mission talking to any other aircraft in other missions. This gives you an overall advantage of talking to each other.

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This provides improved situational awareness and it helps in carrying out silent intercept when I do not have to transcript from my own radar. I can transmit from the radar of a different aircraft or from a radar on the ground. It helps build a real time electronic orbat. Navigation gets better, in that, the aircraft can find new routes through safe corridors. We can transmit and transfer images in real time and seek instructions to engage the target. In a dense aircraft environment, with a small operational space, the data network provides collision warnings. We are able to carry out dynamic target allocation in the air and on the ground, thus enhancing operational capability. We are able to coordinate the air effort to ensure attacks are well coordinated and effective.

In effect NCW has provided us accelerated information flow, enhanced battlefield transparency and seamless communication with voice and data.  Finally, what it leads to is reduced time from sensor to shooter.

All this impacts organisational change. In the legacy systems we had voice and data systems in different silos. NCW has transformed the environment to an enterprise network with an integrated command and control structure with a satcom network included. All of this can be scaled up to provide better data-link connectivity and communications.

Network Management

For the IAF considerable transformation has occurred. We have an Information Highway which has the network. To manage the network there is a data centre management unit. The networks are vulnerable; they need to have network security management which is provided by the SOC. To be able to communicate with remote areas where fibre optic network does not reach, a mobile network has been deployed which itself is managed by a mobile network management centre (MNMC). Satellite communication are in turn managed by a static Satellite Network Management Centre (SNMC).

The major change that has happened in the organisation is that we are able to connect with entities at various locations with redundancies, which the legacy systems did not provide. Therefore, the old traditional centralised hierarchical structures that were suitable for relatively stable and predictable conditions has been replaced by more flexible and flatter structures that will facilitate devolution of command.

The work force requirements basically entail recruitment policies, which need to be developed to draw expertise from a range of people, proficiencies and skills need to be created at various levels, For the special skills and the competencies required, special training centres are set up to be able to understand networks and managing them. The entire organization has got revamped. Is it static, No. As we keep evolving this network and the organization management keeps evolving side by side. Just as management of the organization is updated in terms of network management, we also have to look at the operational organizations.

The traditional legacy organization has three operational levels – tactical, operational; and strategic – the last being the highest. There are no overlaps. Command and control flows from top to bottom and feedback goes from bottom to top. Today, functional requirements dictate increased situational awareness, optimization of information flow, decentralization of planning, control and execution functions. In the new organization structure, we have overlaps in the tactical, operational and strategic levels. The information from the grid is available to all simultaneously – at the higher direction level to the execution level. Planning and control is decentralized. Many functions happen at the same time. Execution is much faster.

NCO facilitates flattening of the command & control structure; we need to adapt to this structure. The availability of information and data facilitates flexibility in the execution of tasks. Commanders can exercise seamless and dynamic control in rapidly changing situations. These changes allow us to seize emerging opportunities in operations due to the availability of networks.

In the end, I would say that NCW concept capitalizes on the advances of information technology; it will continue to evolve. One of the greatest challenges of NCW is the cultural change required to implement the new organizational processes and exploit the advantages provided by the concept. Speed of command and self-synchronization with the new concepts must be accepted and implemented on a larger scale within our organizations. NCW is a constructive facilitator. It requires change in the organizations and mindset of individuals within the organizations. Essentially, NCW remains a command and control concept. In addition, it directly contributes towards increasing combat effectiveness, providing efficient interfaces among sensors, shooters and the decision makers. It also opens up feasibility of implementing flattened organization structures and peer-to-peer command and control protocols, which would make military organizations more effective in the battlefield as well as more agile in dealing with the complexities of hybrid warfare in the 21st Century battlespace. 

The post DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION – Organisational Changes Required For NCW appeared first on IMR.

The need of the hour is to be strong. China respects strength and we are strong, but we need to look at the realities and how technology is moving. We need to identify areas in which we must move forward and really take domination of aerospace to the next level.

We have the ability to dominate today at the time of choosing but the definition of domination, the extent of it and everything concerning operations is moving rapidly. Therefore, I think the single most important issue that is being discussed now – networking, digitization, the ability to shorten the loop – whichever way you put it – is the most important issue. While I will not be able to go into the depth of many of the issues, where we are and what we have done, I will address issues as far as the Air Force is concerned, and what we need to do.

I will share with you my experience in building important networks having a bearing on war waging capability and the way forward in achieving enhanced domination of air space.

Keeping Pace

First, we need to integrate much more and, second, we need to move forward rapidly. The digitization scenario is changing very rapidly. Our basic structures in our procurement, decision-making, the way we integrate, the time we take, how the industry moves, how we ourselves move – all these need to be looked at. We cannot have open-ended timelines, we need to move fast and we need to absorb. While technology is being absorbed we should look at the next level straight away. What you implement today, will be good for the next two to three years. We should always be moving to the next level. So that is the background with which I would like to start.

Integration is the Key

Air Space domination implies being able to rapidly and accurately engage all targets while they are mobile or static, in the air, on land, over the sea, in a chosen time space. To achieve this capability, integration of all available airborne platforms, ground-based weapon systems and decision grade in particular, is essential. I think the decision-grade is something we tend to miss out or not implement in full. We are well aware that the process of transforming linear decision-making process into a well integrated information and knowledge-based network is the basic essence of digitization in terms of direction it should take in the armed forces.

Shortening the OODA Cycle

Infusion of information technology (IT) at the turn of the century ushered in a revolution in military affairs (RMA), that went on to fundamentally alter the nature of warfighting. Now network-centric capability seamlessly fuses all elements of war fighting to create a very high level of battlefield awareness that can be and should be effectively exploited to dominate operations in that area. The key components of these capabilities are the sensors, such as radar, ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) platforms, AWACS (airborne warning and control system), satellites, etc. The shooters, both manned and unmanned and the decision makers in the loop control the air battle at all levels starting from the tactical level or the individual level in the cockpit or the combat system right up to the formations and back to the decision makers on the ground. This synergy is critical to compress the OODA – observe, orient, decide and act – cycle and this is really the essence as far as our ability to dominate is concerned. In air wars, it would apply simultaneously in parallel layers – the pilot in the cockpit who is handling the threats or the targets to the formation in parallel. The formation leader would be taking decisions in the entire area in which air battle manager would be taking parallel decisions. Also going backwards to Command HQ or commands whose assets are deployed in the air war that is going on in that area – to the extent that between Commands and Air HQs, in parallel, seamless thinking and decision-making in terms of real time results and how that particular battle changes the scenario to the next one or the parallel one. So, the whole scheme of things needs to move fast and whoever can do that better would win the situation. As you are all aware air power application is not only time sensitive but inherently escalatory in nature particularly in No War No Peace scenario and that is also to be kept in mind.

Digitisation Facilitates Flexibility

All this mandates high level of visibility into battle space to enable commanders to take quick and accurate decisions that will ensure that the campaign achieves the desired level. It is for these reasons that air operations, in particular, are planned centralized and executed decentralized. That is the way the Air Force functions and we have the capability to plan and execute from one location or two locations in parallel. We can today conduct operations, for example, from Delhi across many commands and bring to bear the assets onto one area or chosen areas as we decide. It need not be from Delhi, the same can be done from a location somewhere else. That is the flexibility and capability that digitization and networking brings, provided we integrate it and correctly incorporate it into our operational systems and thinking. Complete visibility of plans accords very high degree of flexibility at the operational level. It also effects dynamic changes which are in play in shifting air battle. Thus, real time decision-making such as rerouting fighter aircraft to destroy alternative targets or more important targets, or dynamic switching of roles of the force in the air to cater to any emerging enemy threat is a norm even today rather than an exception. This needs to become the high point of our ability in network-centric operations in the future.

NCW Projects

With aerospace sector being highly technology intensive, I have been on the path of transformation towards network-centric warfare (NCW) capability for over a decade. The process protocol started way back in 2006, when pan-India multi-protocol level optical system with modern IT-based technology came into effect. Based on this the AFNET, the backbone of Air Force was founded, which provided us an ultra high-speed communication and real time data sharing. What we started then has fructified today pan-India. But having done that, what we need to do now is to modify and to upgrade it at pace that has to be much faster. The success and lessons of the AFNET project laid the base for the next evolutionary step, which involved integration and networking of our sensors, progress towards processing capabilities, and keeping the IT infrastructure abreast of requirements. This has been achieved by integrating all the sensors like long range radars, AWACS and including civil service radars, aerostats and satellites, which empowers the Air Force to dominate an area, firstly with the information about the area, thereafter with our assets. The evolution of IACCS (Integrated Air Command & Control System), which is a C4I element has resulted in seamless air space surveillance capability. Now, AI and automation has shortened the sensor to shooter loop making targeting highly responsive as it has added another layer on top of it. We need to look at these hybrid systems and other advancements that have made decision-making faster and dynamic targeting a reality today.  

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Combat planning and automated decision-making is being developed in-house by the IAF, which will integrate air campaign planning and execution, including war gaming. This is something that we have launched this year, which will again pave the way for really being networked. Such initiatives in operations is the only way to automate the battlefield functions of tactical echelons and then establish an integrated command management system. Concurrently, we have also been actively partnering with industry to expand our digitization and automation footprint across multiple domains, which indirectly enhances our capability to undertake operations. A leading IT firm, Wipro, has developed an electronics maintenance management system (EMMS) and it has been successful. IACCS has done very well and EMMS has now become one of the world’s largest maintenance management systems with complete digital workflow across all platforms of the IAF. This is already fructified today. This is the pace with at which we have moved fortunately with indigenous industry. Our predecessors took that call and that is the only way you can keep your information secure and have the ability to make amends and modifications. Likewise, our e-governance projects, which have undertaken, will achieve enhanced automation and paperless workflow by this year end on nearly on all operational, administrative and maintenance related activities in the IAF.

Tri-Services Integration

Tri-Services integration is the next logical step in this evolution of information centric warfare. Individual service specific C4i systems are already in place. We need to construct joint and integrated C4I systems. Convergence of tactical data system, which automates the process of situational awareness and information across the entire battlespace is a key requirement. One of the challenges in such integration is the development of information islands within each Service with a robust security mechanism – and this is important – because the moment you digitize, vulnerability on security front needs to be really tight. We can share a lot on this in terms of our own experience. These information islands can be overlaid on a common tri-Service grid and serve to provide the requisite data without causing information overload. To this end the NFS is one such medium of convergence while we try to have tri-Service network capability.

Lessons Learnt

While the IAF has made considerable strides in its quest for dominating the information and networking domain, I would like to dwell on a few important lessons also which we have learnt in our journey.

First and foremost is the fact that frequent software and hardware changes have a negative impact on the transformation efforts. And the hardware changes fast. We really have to be a little visionary in the process – what we choose and how fast we do. We need to formulate a process that organizations requirements across destroying individual weapon systems, integrating systems such as EWO or common degree platforms (which we have done recently) but has led us to reverse engineer systems due to incompatibility with other systems. This is one of the major lessons from the recent past, which we have learnt. This would increase when we try to integrate many other different legacy systems. Policies and process of digitization or automation must lead to balance in developing systems that leverage the latest and best technology while having systems that are stable and combat ready.

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Second major lesson is in the area of software development life cycle itself. I already mentioned that this is an area that needs to move fast and I think that the strength is that if you follow the indigenous route it will give strength to move faster. The industry also needs to recognize this and have a shorter loop in terms of their own decision-making and have a little more open-minded approach towards the requirements. With the operational urgency to develop or digitize products we invariably employ the standard spiral model, which has resulted in faster building of software but which comes with a new set of problems. To provide users with software, equipment with critical points, developers are often forced to release software before perfection and then continually field upgrades. We have seen this in many projects. At times it is also for cutting costs, which is just too bad and these are the issues the industry needs to handle. A better approach would be to decide on what we call software drops so that unwanted features are identified mutually and cut out on the development side.

Cyber Defence

In the cyber domain, though we have moved towards the Defence Cyber Agency, DSA and Service specific cyber groups, we still need to walk a good distance ahead to achieve all our operational objectives. A lot of work has started in this area too. As military communications, sensing, logistics, maintenance and C2I has increasingly been digitized and inter-connected, cyber defence has become a vital element of enhancing the digital capabilities of our forces and networks. Our aerospace systems and information systems are increasingly inter-twined and, hence, the potential of cyber attack is huge. More importantly, the potential of real time damage is huge. For example, the Conflicker worm attack in 2009, led to short term grounding of the Rafale fleet. If it happens at the wrong time, it can be critical. This is the scenario that needs to be avoided at all costs.

Emerging Technologies

Most of our systems are moving ahead and we have invested towards technological advancements, such as software defined networking. The Air Force is doing a lot in AI. Many of our systems and their integration is shortening the timeframe of analysis, particularly through Big Data analytics in EW. There are emerging technologies like quantum computing which we need to look at. Some of you may be aware that Google is already building a quantum computer to accomplish a task in 200 seconds what the fastest computer available today will take 10,000 years. This is what we are talking about in the years to come. While quantum computing is still is the nascent stage, with respect to military applications, we must see the technology both as an enabler or disrupter in the near future. China is investing large amount in such technologies. This is an area that we need to look at as a nation.

In these emergent technologies, it is only through a national effort that we can keep pace and not be left behind. The industry really has to look at the future carefully, leapfrog and catch up in these fields and build our networking ability so that we can dominate the areas we want.

Operational Fallback Systems

Finally, while digitization is the need of the hour, any lasting solution must go beyond basic network connectivity and cyber security. That is just the basic requirement. Also, defence planners need to maintain a backup, analog or appropriate systems in order to ensure minimum operational capacity, in case of digital blackouts or disruption due to cyber attacks. This is very critical area. Before we take up any networking project, there has to be an operational fallback option. It should nothappen that we depend on networks to such an extent that lack of network or operational fallback disrupts our ability to dominate. If we are not careful this can easily happen.

We need to enable our leaders to have a deep understanding of the warfare in the context of information. Manning digitized environments presents a major challenge in military eco system as we are forced to compete with private sector for qualified young men and women. We are still not self-reliant in terms of IT infrastructure with hardware being dominated by China and operating systems being dominated by US. However, we can offset the same by efficient programming, coding and developing of algorithms. This is an area that should become our strength, apart from taking some long-term look and calls on issues of software and hardware towards our applications itself, both in the industrial and military domains. This is one area that can propel us into network domination in the future.

Extract from a talk by Air Chief Mshl RKS Bhadauria given at an IMR webinar on Digitisation and Networking in the Armed Forces on 23 Nov 2020. Transcribed by Prithish Roy.

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Military and civil radars are being increasingly co-located in various parts of the country to provide seamless control of respective airspaces.

Integrated Air Command Control Communications System

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