Across Domains

Pravin Sawhney

Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat has the mandate to facilitate the creation of theatre commands in three years. This is a tall order, especially when the Indian Air Force is not reconciled to the idea of being led by the land forces. It believes, and rightly so, that given the plethora of stand-off and precision capabilities, and its limited combat resources, it ought to play the lead at the warfighting (operational) level of war. However, with the die cast, all three services will fall in line with what the CDS believes will be the war-winning structural reform.

The problem with this reform is that it is outdated and not in sync with the new disruptive technologies which have increased the war-fighting domains. These domains are land, air, sea, space, cyber, deep sea and electronic warfare; and together they will transform the character of war.

It would be instructive to consider the world’s mightiest, the United States military’s dilemma. Having been distracted with low technology sub-conventional war in Afghanistan for 18 years, it realised that it has ceded advantage in technology incubation and development to China and Russia; especially China, which Pentagon has concluded to be its biggest military challenger i