Information Dominance Assumes Significance In Warfare

Information and communications technology has become the DNA of modern day warfare, making the development of appropriate technology to ensure information dominance over the adversary a very pertinent issue for India’s armed forces, minister of state for defence M M Pallam Raju said in a recent statement made by him in the national capital.

“In keeping with the increasing trend towards self-reliance, it’s imperative to modernise the armed forces through synchronised efforts by domain experts from the defence forces alongside the industry and academia and ensure guaranteed information assurance in the present day battlefield, which is becoming more and more digitised”, Pallam Raju added.

The minister was addressing the DEFCOM India 2008 seminar on ‘Technology and Anti-Technology Challenges for Defence Forces’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Corps of Signals that opened in Delhi on May 27.

Addressing the seminar, Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor said that the paradigm shift in warfare called for ever-shorter response times for which communication networks are critical and need constant upgrades.

“This also makes these networks increasingly vulnerable”, he maintained, adding, “There is also need for focused measures that guarantee information security and superiority”.

According to Lt Gen S P Sree Kumar, the Indian Army’s Signals Officer-in-Chief, the armed forces were looking forward to finding ways to merge the industry’s capabilities with the army’s requirements to move ahead. “DEFCOM is a sounding board to plan future infrastructure in the battlefield of tomorrow through finding solutions in the hardware, software and network domains and by paying attention to the vulnerabilities of these specialised information networks”, he maintained.

“The army especially wants the industry to respond to its Greenfield projects”, he added.