The Major Threat to India’s AI War Capability: Lack of Indigenous AI
Operation Sindoor, as a retaliation against the Pahalgam terror attack, woke India up to the need for machine learning (ML) integration into our command and control, on-ground war, logistics and decision-making. The result has been an Indian army AI roadmap announced recently that envisions integration of battlefield innovations in Artificial Intelligence (AI), ML and Big Data across our operational theatres, logistics and decision making by 2026-27.
This is a commendable move by the government. The only problem: we lack indigenous technology and its supply lines that can match those abroad and also be free of foreign interference.
INDIAN ARMY ROADMAP
On July 4, at a FICCI conference titled “New Age Military Technologies: Industry Capabilities & Way Forward”, Lt Gen Amardeep Singh Aujla, Master General Sustenance of the Indian Army, unveiled a comprehensive modernization roadmap aimed at transforming our defense capabilities across multiple domains including different advanced weapons system and also the use of AI, ML, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
A few weeks later, the Indian Express reported details: “battlefield awareness using AI tools that can process large volumes of information quickly. These include text summarisers built on Large Language Models (LLMs) to scan and condense long reports, AI-powered chatbots, voice-to-text systems, facial recognition, and tools that can detect unusual patterns or threats. AI will also be used to analyse feeds from drones, satellites, aircraft and ground sensors, and fuse this data in real time to support faster, more informed decision-making.”
AI is also to be used in navigation, surveillance, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) analysis, adversary capability mapping and running wargame simulations.