Army Chief General MM Naravane on Thursday, in an apparent reference to the tension at the Line of Actual Control(LAC), said the situation there highlighted the nature of threats facing India in preserving its territorial integrity and sovereignty, noting that the “legacy challenges” have only grown in scale and intensity.
His observations came on a day when the first step was taken by both the armies to break the ten-month long logjam at the LAC in Eastern Ladakh by withdrawing tanks and troops.
Addressing a seminar organized by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies(CLAWS), Naravane said the Indian Army will continue to prepare and adapt to the future challenges, the more “proximate, real and present dangers” on India’s “active borders” cannot be ignored.
He said the ongoing developments along the northern borders should make the armed forces ponder over the nature of the unsettled borders and consequent challenges with regard to protecting the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
“Without doubt there are newer threats on the horizon, but the hard reality is that the legacy challenges have not quite gone away. In fact, they have only grown in scale and intensity,” the Army Chief said.
“While the Indian Army will continue to prepare and adapt to the future, the more proximate, real and present dangers, on our active borders cannot be ignored,” he said.
He said the principal challenge before the Armed Forces today is that of the growing capability enhancements in an era of “finite budgets”, adding the structures, inventories and human resources of the military will need to adapt and transform accordingly.
On changing contours of security challenges, Naravane said when India focused on building core capacities in the spheres of land, sea and air , the country’s adversaries took the battle to the newer domains of space, cyber, and informatics.
He said India’s adversaries are investing in creating a formidable stand-off enterprise in the form of long-range precision fires, hypersonic vehicles and robust air defence capacities.
“In order to win future wars, mere mastery of the traditional domains of land, sea and air will no longer suffice,” Naravane said. He said as the adversaries expand the “contest to the grey zone”, there is a “dire” need for modern militaries to be as proficient in competition as in hard core “kinetics”.
“We need to shed the classical war and peace disposition and enhance cross governmental fusion in order to win aggressively in the competitive space,” he noted.
The Army chief also broadly touched upon how the future wars could be fought with the use of highly maneuverable unmanned aerial vehicles, electromagnetic spectrum technology, swarm drones or use of low orbit systems.