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State and non-state actors will use drones, but we will deal with them: Army Chief

All our troops on grounds have been sensitised to this evolving threat and we are developing capabilities to deal with that whether by the state-sponsored or by the states themselves, Indian Army chief Gen MM Naravane said.

State and non-state actors will use drones, but we will deal with them army chief-VPN
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New Delhi, First Published Jul 1, 2021, 6:19 PM IST

Stating that India is in the realm of multidimensional operations and across the full spectrum of conflict, Indian Army chief Gen MM Naravane on Thursday said that future warfare is going to be more abstract, volatile, uncertain and ambiguous.

"It is no longer that it will be only the sub-conventional or conventional. Whenever there is a conflict in the future it will be across the entire range. And we will have to ready to respond to each of these as it emerges and not just focusing on just anyone set of threats or capabilities and that is going to be the future of warfare. It is going to be more abstract, volatile, uncertain and ambiguous and that is where the challenge lies in preparing ourselves for the war of the future," Gen Naravane said during a webinar organised by Global Counter-Terrorism Council on Artificial Intelligence and other modern technologies. 

When asked about the usage of drones in attacks, the chief said, "Drones will be increasingly used in all sorts of combat both by states and non-state actors. We will have to factor in all the future planning that we do. We are catering for both the offensive as use of drones and also focusing on the defensive measures the counter-drone systems measures that we need to adopt, prevent any attacks, ethical facilities by the drones and their use whether by states or non-state actors."

India has witnessed the first-ever drone attacks on the Indian Air Force base in Jammu on June 27. 

In reply to a question, he said, "Easy availability of drones which you can even make at your home definitely increases the complexity and challenges that we have to deal with. We are seized of this problem and put in certain measures (I would not like to elaborate too much on them because of obvious reasons). But all our troops on grounds have been sensitised to this evolving threat and we are developing capabilities to deal with that whether by the state-sponsored or by the states themselves. We are developing the capabilities to deal with these drone threats in the kinetic and the non-kinetic realm. So I think this is a continuous battle over the centuries; this has always been the case."

India and Pakistan announced to implement the ceasefire understandings in February this year along the line of control in Jammu & Kashmir. 

The Army chief said, "Over the past few months ever since the ceasefire understandings between the DGMOs in February this year, the situation has seen a marked improvement especially as far as terrorism is concerned. There has been little or no infiltration across the LC and the number of terror-related incidents in the Valley have also seen a considerable decline. Overall there has been a sharp drop in the parameters of violence. I have very clearly indicated that the Awaam in Kashmir is all for peace and development." 

He also said that there are some inimical elements who would not like peace to prevail in the Valley. 

"There is always an element who tries to sabotage the process of peace and development," he added.

On India and China border standoff, Gen Naravane said that the situation along the Line of Actual Control has been normal for quite some time now ever since the disengagement took place in February. 

"We are engaging with the Chinese at various levels -- political level, diplomatic level and of course at the military level. At the military level, at different levels too. So these talks between us are going on and this has helped in building trust between two sides. Going ahead, we are sure that we will be able to resolve the remaining issues," he added.

On Atmanirbharat initiative of the government in the defence sector, he said, "Pandemic has clearly shown us that we need to be self-reliant in all fields, whether it is defence equipment or technologies. We need to develop our own systems which are uniquely adapted to our conditions and towards that end, I think we have done a lot of progress and hard work."

"We have established a centre of excellence at the MCT, Mhow and dedicated an AI lab. We are working on our own systems. Our country has great strength in the field of IT and software. So we will be able to be self-reliant in this aspect and through that will not feel any kind of intervention or interference from outside," he added.

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