Army Chief's Rundown Of AI Plan To Improve Troops' Mobility, Protection

The Indian Army is in the process of preparing an Artificial Intelligence roadmap in consultation with subject matter experts in a step towards improving its "mobility and protection", Army Chief General Manoj Pande said at NDTV's maiden Defence Summit on Thursday. Natural language processing, facial recognition, vehicle tracking, satellite imagery analysis and other autonomous systems are among several artificial intelligence projects that are currently underway, he said.

"A tri-services project is being undertaken to develop a high-powered computing AI cloud. We are in the process of preparing the AI road map in consultation with subject matter experts, which will serve as good for the next 20 to 25 years," the Army chief said.

He said the army is also pursuing projects like robotic surveillance platforms, autonomous combat vehicles and manned-unmanned cleaning solutions. "We are also exploring 5G communications and its use in training and operations," he added.

The Army chief asserted that modernisation and technology infusion, which stands on the edifice of 'aatmanirbharta', forms one of the key "pillars of our transformation roadmap that we are undertaking in the Indian Army".

"Battlefield situational awareness is being increased or enhanced through border surveillance systems and having a range of surveillance drones for target acquisition and precision fires. We have swarm drones and new artillery platforms. Our night fighting capabilities have been enhanced through night sights for small arms and handheld thermal images. The effectiveness of our communication right down to the soldier level is being upgraded through the induction of software-defined videos. We are also deploying terrain-specific electronic warfare systems, drone and anti-drone systems. Logistic capacities and efficiencies are being augmented by employing or introducing of logistic drones," he said.

However, while talking about the infusion of technology and advanced weapon systems in the Army, he also highlighted the need for finding the right balance between vintage, current and state-of-the-art systems.

"Modernization or replacement of all vintage platforms in one go is neither feasible nor desirable. We intend to scale up the ratio of vintage to current to the state-of-the-art equipment, and we intend doing that substantially by 2030 with a focused 'aatmanirbharta' capability development road map," he said.