India’s Network Centric Warfare Capabilities
Any discussion on defense modernization always starts with Network Centric Warfare, the idea of linking all aspects of war-fighting into shared situation awareness and shared understanding of command intent to achieve synchronicity of effects that multiplies the strength of the defense forces. Threat environments are transforming fast and today almost every country is on its way to acquire the NCW capabilities. But it would be appropriate to say that Network Centric Warfare and network-centric operations are not ends in themselves, they are the means to an end and for real value, they must be applied to military operations to improve the strategic, operational and tactical capacity.
The latest trends in NCW are driven by the revolutions in sensor technology, information technology, and weapons technology. But NCW is not limited to technology alone, in their book ‘Network Centric Warfare, Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority,’ Alberts, Garstka, and Stein describe Network Centric Warfare as: “NCW is based on a new way of thinking, network-centric thinking, and applying it to military operations. It is characterized by the ability of geographically dispersed forces to create a high level of shared battlespace awareness that can be exploited via self-synchronization and other network-centric operations to achieve the commander’s intent.” In short, NCW is not narrowly about technology, but broadly about an emerging military response to the Information Age.
In India, whether it’s the Joint Doctrine of Indian Armed forces launched in 2017 or the Land Warfare Doctrine (2018), both have also recognized the urgency of exploiting the information technology, Integrated Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Information and Intelligence systems to win in the future battlefield.
In the Joint Doctrine of Indian Armed Forces released in 2017 it is mentioned that “the character of future wars is likely to be ambiguous, uncertain, short, swift, lethal, intense, precise, non-linear, unrestricted, unpredictable and hybrid.” and therefore undertaking ‘Integrated Theatre Battle’ with an operationally adaptable force, to ensure decisive victory in a network-centric environment across the entire spectrum of conflict in varied geographical domains, will be the guiding philosophy for evolution of force application and warfighting strategies.
In the year 2015, the former Defense Minister of India, late Manohar Parrikar has launched the Digital Army program under which India has developed its first integrated Defense Communication Network. DCN is a strategic, highly secure and scalable system which has a pan-India reach – from Ladakh to the North East to island territories and it will enable all the stakeholders to share situational awareness for a faster decision making the process. Last years, the government has nearly doubled the budget for defense communication networks too.
After Joint Doctrine of Indian Armed Forces, the Land Warfare Doctrine-2018 has also given an emphasis on the induction of emerging technologies in the context of future warfare. The Land Warfare Doctrine has identified the need to integrate Artificial Intelligence and robotics into war-fighting and it expresses a quest for cutting edge technologies like Nanotechnology, Quantum Computing, High Energy Lasers, Directed Energy weapons, Hypersonic weapons, Swarm attacks through Drones, Pulsed Microwave Weapon Systems, and Micro-Satellites.
Future wars are likely to be fought in the domains of space and cyber. According to some official documents, the steps to establish Indian Defense Cyber Agency and Defense Space Agency are already underway. Apart from navigation and communication, the Space tech is critical for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance too. Network-centric operations directly depend on this medium due to the dependence on satellite links. Some of the ISRO’s projects such as GSAT 7, GSAT 7A, EMISAT an Indian reconnaissance satellite launched in the month of April, etc. have given a boost to the network-centric capabilities of Indian Defense forces.
The developments in all different aspects of network-centric capabilities are progressing steadily but the urgency to have this capability is strong and is being repeatedly reflected in each and every move of the defense agencies.
