'Warfare will soon be between machines and humans'

Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan on Tuesday underlined the evolving nature of warfare and said a combat has always been between humans but now the world is going to enter an era in which it may be between a machine and human being and later between machines.

During an interaction session held at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses here, he asserted that "we are at the cusp of a major change in warfare".

Three major technologies or trends are going to change the course of warfare, he said.

These trends are robotics, celerity meaning hypersonic and extreme automation that is led by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning and other disruptive technologies, he said.

"The effect of all this is... since, again... warfare has evolved, combat has always been between a human and a human. That human may be well-protected, well-armed differently, he could be mounted on a mobile platform, it could be a horse in earlier days, it could be an attack helicopter now but combat was always between two humans," the CDS said.

"Now, we are going to enter an era in which a combat may be between a machine and human being, a machine which is totally autonomous, and tomorrow it could be between machines and machines. That's a big difference in warfare which is going to take place, and that's what I foresee, because of robotics," he added.

"Warfare was always fought on one single battlefield. That was almost till the middle of the 19th century, you can say the Crimean War or the American Civil War. There were two technologies which were not developed for warfare that changed the whole course of warfare. One was railroad and the second was the telegraph. Large forces could be mobilised in a short period of time, from one place to the other.

"This is the point where a two-front or multi-front warfare, that concept started evolving. There was only a single battlefield, you could say right from the time of Mahabharata right till the Crimean War," the CDS said.

He underlined that technology has always affected warfare and most of the time technologies are actually being developed how wars are going to be fought.

But there are some kind of disruptive technologies which are developed for some other use but they find use in warfare, he said.

Of the three major technologies or trends that are going to change the course of warfare, the first is robotics, the CDS said.

"When I say robotics, it will include technologies like unmanned system, automated kind of a system, it should also include exoskeleton to enhance human capabilities

"The second important trend that I see, I have named it celerity, that has to do with velocity and speed. This is coming out due to hypersonic, both glide sand cruise, sensor technologies at one end and ballistic at one end. And drones and even swarm drones," he said.

These technologies are going to make weapon systems almost undetectable, inaudible and untargetable. So, vulnerabilities of all forces across long ranges are going to increase, Gen Chauhan said.

"The third technology which is advancing is... automation or extreme automation that is led by artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data and that is going to help you take decisions better and faster. That will help transit from net-centric warfare to data-centric warfare," he said.

He underlined that in net-centric warfare, one is looking at "information superiority" and in data-centric, one is looking at "cognitive superiority".

These are the three technological trends which are going to shape warfare in future. There are others too, like quantum technology and advanced material. But a combination of technologies would be "more disruptive", he said.

Asked about the ongoing conflicts in parts of Europe and West Asia, Gen Chauhan said, "We have been able to maintain strategic autonomy and that is a good thing."

India has "played its cards well" in responding to these conflicts, he said.

During the interaction, Gen Chauhan said that at the recent Joint Commanders Conference held in Lucknow, the defence minister instructed the armed forces to look at "integrating Coast Guard and Assam Rifles" in terms of certain functions, "so, we are looking at, this year, integrating their functions also".

The next logical step would be to get the CAPFs, who are guarding the borders, together in terms of communication and hospital system, among other functions, he said.