Trying to give direction, speed to reforms: CDS

New Delhi, October 14

Change and adaption are crucial for survival of the armed forces, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, said today while delivering the 14th Air Chief Marshall LM Katre Memorial Lecture organised by the Air Force Association in Bengaluru.

Speaking about the change and evolution and the expected reform in the Indian military, the CDS said “what the three service chiefs and I are trying to do is to give these reforms a certain speed in a particular direction”.

“We are entering an age that is uncertain, this will require some kind of a transformative change. Armed forces are also cognizant of the changes that are taking place around them, and they also adapt and change. The characteristics of warfare are changing because of the introduction of new technologies. It’s mostly technological-driven issues. “We are fighting new domains, such as space, cyber, cognitive and electromagnetic. Traditionally, we fight on air, land and sea,” he added.

As far as the Indian Air Force is concerned they have graduated into a network-centric warfare. As regard Navy, we have seen this mission-based deployment,” General Anil Chauhan said.

Speaking about unpredictability, the CDS mentioned the Israel-Hamas conflict, who would’ve predicted eight days ago that the world will be facing this problem. The world, he said, is now transiting between two orders and currently the global geopolitical environment is in a state of flux.

In spite of Russia being a major nuclear power, the geopolitical importance of Russia will go down in times to come, General Chauhan said.

We’ll see a more assertive China

We will see a more assertive China in the times to come… there will be a convergence of interests of the Russians and the Chinese and some other countries. North Korea and Iran may join the bandwagon. — General Anil Chauhan, CDS