Then it will continue to acquire technology: Maj Gen Anand (Retd) on why India needs to maintain its technological edge | Exclusive | Today’s news

Pakistan is likely to learn from Operation Sindoor and continue to acquire advanced military technology, including support from China and Turkey, so it is important for India to maintain and expand its technological edge, said Major General Pawan Anand (Retd), Director, Center for Emerging Technologies for AtmaNirbhar Bharat (CETANB), United Service Institution of India (USI).

“Pakistan would also learn a lesson and will continue to acquire technology. The support it has received from China and other developed countries, including Turkey, means that its technological capabilities could also sharpen. Therefore, we need to maintain our own technological edge,” Anand told LiveMint on the sidelines of the Defense Tech Summit held in New Delhi on September 29.

Anand said Operation Sindoor demonstrated how technological advances can provide an operational advantage, and India must now build on these gains by accelerating the development and deployment of new technologies.

Quick answers to key questions

•5 QUESTIONS

India can maintain its technological edge by accelerating the development and deployment of new technologies and ensuring that advances outpace those of adversaries such as Pakistan, which is likely to acquire technology with the support of countries such as China and Turkey.

Digital engineering allows the military to virtually design, model and test new military equipment, shortening development timelines and helping to identify design issues early, ensuring a more perfect physical prototype.

The integration of various military systems is essential as it enables seamless communication and operational coordination between various platforms and weapons, thereby increasing the overall effectiveness of operations as demonstrated in Operation Sindoor.

Artificial intelligence contributes to military operations by classifying large data sets, providing analytical capabilities and supporting operational decision-making, enabling forces to use data effectively while ensuring that commanders remain in control.

Critical pillars for building effective military AI capabilities include computing power, connectivity, and well-classified data, which are necessary to develop advanced AI solutions in a military context.

“Operation Sindoor showed how a better level of technology can give us an operational advantage. The natural thing now is to move forward, stay ahead and ensure that we advance faster than the pace of technological development and faster than our adversaries can throw at us,” he said.

Anand said the push will require the armed forces to make greater use of technology such as artificial intelligence and digital engineering.

Read also | ‘Army has moved into AI’: Maj Gen Anand on India’s data, technology and self-reliance

“The military has moved to artificial intelligence and is working with massive amounts of data. It’s classifying that data and putting it into the right training sets to run its algorithms and use the right models for field deployment,” Anand said.

AI needs computation, connectivity and data

Anand identified three critical pillars for building effective military AI capabilities: compute, connectivity, and data.

“Artificial intelligence has three pillars: computing, connectivity and data,” he said.

“We have redundancy in connectivity and well-classified data and training sets are almost in place. All we need now is high computing capacity. Coupled with our huge talent base, we will be on our way to becoming a global leader in AI and the military,” he said.

Anand also pointed to semiconductor capacity gaps as an area that needs more attention as India seeks to build domestic high-performance computing and artificial intelligence capabilities.

Digital engineering can accelerate military acquisitions

Anand said digital engineering can help the armed forces reduce development timelines by allowing new equipment to be designed, modeled and tested virtually before physical prototypes are produced.

“Digital engineering helps us create virtual models of equipment that we want to introduce to the military. We can put physics into these virtual models and test them in a simulated battlefield environment,” he said.

Such virtual testing can help identify design issues earlier and ensure physical prototypes are more refined when built, he added.

“Digital engineering enables faster ideas, faster development and faster field deployment of equipment. This is essential if we want to keep pace with rapidly changing technologies and maintain an edge over our adversaries,” said Anand.

“Our goal is to move the entire acquisition process to a much faster level and ensure that we keep up with technology,” he added.

The Indian Navy has already begun using digital engineering in some projects, although these efforts remain relatively isolated, Anand said.

“The next step is to move this effort to a much broader level across the armed forces,” he added.