The Indian Army is the pride of Bharat. Not only does this eminent institution protect the external frontiers of India but also undertakes a multitude of other activities such as disaster management and mitigation exercises, capacity building, infrastructure building in civilian areas for defence purposes etc.
Every year we celebrate January 15 as Army Day. The 1.3 million strong-force has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 76 years of our independence. Today the Indian Army is one of the strongest, disciplined and lethal military forces in the world. The Indian Army is known for its ethics, strict professional integrity and zero tolerance for any nefarious activities.
The armed forces have been on a modernisation spree since the last decade. In the light of such a modernisation drive, we find that Artificial Intelligence or AI emerging as a critical factor in the domain of defence.
AI has taken the world today by storm. Almost every intellectual and layman conversation today in different corners of the world center around AI. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Gemini are some of the well-known AI driven applications that run on LLM or Large Language Models.
Today the Indian Army is one of the strongest, disciplined and lethal military forces in the world. The Indian Army is known for its ethics, strict professional integrity and zero tolerance for any nefarious activities
But what about the application and prospects of AI in the field of the military?
There is little doubt that AI will revolutionise the domain of defence in the coming years. Having said that it is necessary to chart out how AI can impact the armed forces and the areas where it can be possibly be used to minimise battlefield casualties and promote more accurate intel.
More modern force
Effective and ubiquitous use of AI based applications will make the Indian Army a modern force. AI will enable the central government rationalise the size of Indian Army in a much more-sleek and technology oriented armed force. A particular aspect of this new modern force in the making will the extremely high level of technological skill the personnel are expected to have given the increasingly higher stakes on and of the battlefield.
While there is nothing that the Indian Army needs to internalise from the armed forces of other countries given the richness of our own strategic and intellectual culture, there is one particular thing that our beloved army can possibly observe-is the rationalisation of our adversary cum nemesis China’s armed forces.
The CMC or Central Military Commission is carrying out a major modernisation and rationalisation of its armed forces by making it a more-leaner and tech-oriented force.
With non-state actors particularly Houthi rebels in Yemen using drones to strike commercial ships in the Red Sea region to disrupt international trade, it is imperative that the Indian armed forces, be it the Army or Navy or any other branch upgrade themselves, using AI, in the latest methods of warfare to deter the adversary from becoming more audacious in their attacks.
Autonomous weapon systems
A key feature of the Artificial Intelligence in the field of the military will be the increasingly autonomic nature of weapon systems. A particular area of innovation would be drone technology.
India already has the indigenously built Rustom drones and operates the Heron drone from Israel. It has also placed an order for 30 armed MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones from the US for the Navy. A revolutionary change can come by inventing and integrating an AI that achieves the capability of AGI or Artificial General Intelligence and that runs on artificial neural networks, modeled on the human brain’s neural network. The DRDO or Defence Research and Development Organisation is the go-to organisation in this context.
Another area can be reconnaissance. Intel gathering can become all the swifter and expeditious with the possible use of AI.
A key part of integrating AI in the Indian Army’s arsenal is the enhancement of its offensive and defensive cyberwar waging capacities. A large part of the Russo-Ukraine war is being fought on the cyber front
Enhancing Cyberspace capabilities
A key part of integrating AI in the Indian Army’s arsenal is the enhancement of its offensive and defensive cyberwar waging capacities. A large part of the Russo-Ukraine war is being fought on the cyber front.
In the Indian context we have seen China’s offensive cyberwar capabilities as was evident in the stealing of data of quite a few high-profile patients in AIIMS Delhi back in November 2022 or the electricity outage in Bharat’s financial capital Mumbai in 2020.
Arming itself with the latest and lethal cyberwar capacity must remain one of the top priorities of our Indian Army in this new year.
–The writer is currently working as a Research Associate at Defence Research and Studies (dras.in) and is a columnist. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
–The writer is currently working as a Research Associate at Defence Research and Studies (dras.in) and is a columnist. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
