With AI help, hit Pak assets with  94% accuracy in Op Sindoor: Army

Historical data of 26 years processed through artificial intelligence (AI) provided the Army accurate information on the Pakistan Army’s movement during Operation Sindoor and aided it in pinpoint targeting.

Lt Gen Rajiv Sahni, who was Director General Information Systems during the operation, today said the accuracy of the system to locate and enable targeting was more than 94 per cent.

Explaining the working, he said live data was collected by integrating feed from all sensors, drones, radars and satellites on to a single screen for the commander to take action. “Everything is aggregated and that includes data about enemy positions, assets and logistics," said General Sahni, who is now Director General Electronics and Mechanical Engineers.

The modelling of the battlefield was done using 26 years of data that had tracked and stored each radio emission and every frequency signature. This included the movement of each equipment and the Pakistan unit it was assigned with in the past.

“With this modelling and live feed, 94 per cent accuracy was achieved, allowing us to pinpoint where a particular machine (gun, missile, unit, etc) would be located on the border," General Sahni added.

The infrastructure enables other services – the Navy and Indian Air Force (IAF) -- to use the same data.

The Army even got the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) to provide weather data. A specialised ‘app’ developed in-house by the Army makes a forecast of 200 km into enemy territory. It provides usable data to military commanders on wind speed and direction. This is needed and the trajectory of the long range missiles has to be calculated using AI.

The data-based targetting was possible as the home-grown application for ‘electronic intelligence collation’ was modified in record time during Operation Sindoor. This enabled a common surveillance picture allowing for target acquisition. This enhanced coordination of resources, improved decision-making and provided commanders at all levels with greater agility and situational awareness, General Sahni added.

AI is changing modern militaries across the world, armed forces are transforming rapidly through automation, digitisation and the adoption of new technologies.

The Army has designated the years 2024-2025 as the “Year of Technology Absorption”. This includes establishing dedicated AI cells, fostering collaboration among armed forces, R&D institutions, academia, and industry, and creating secure cloud-based and edge-computing environments for battlefield applications.

A parallel programme is on to have ‘smart weapons’ and developing AI-enabled autonomous systems such as drones and unmanned vehicles, while upgrading existing platforms with predictive maintenance and decision-support modules.

An Army AI Research and Incubation Centre  has been opened in Bengaluru in December last year. The state-of-the-art facility, inaugurated by the Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi, accelerates AI project development through partnerships with DRDO, academia and industry.

Additionally, the Army is developing an indigenous unified ‘AI platform’ that will integrate operational, intelligence, logistics, and training applications on a single secure framework.