New Delhi, Sep 01 : Vice Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Sandeep Jain on Tuesday called for a shift from conventional kinetic warfare to “smart fighting” across multiple domains, asserting that modern battles are fought as much in cyberspace and information networks as on physical borders.
Addressing the second annual Trident Lecture organised by the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS), Lt Gen Jain as per Kashmir Convener said India’s defence forces may be the only ones in the world required to fight all five generations of warfare simultaneously, necessitating a blend of traditional weaponry and advanced networked systems.
“Kinetic actions establish credibility, but non-kinetic instruments extend the consequences beyond the day,” he said, citing the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty as an example of a non-military action with prolonged strategic impact.
Citing Operation Sindoor, the Vice Chief said the campaign did not begin on the day it became visible but was built over years through intelligence networks and cyber operations. “The battle was fought in the electromagnetic spectrum, diplomatic channels and information space. Every citizen with a mobile phone was a participant,” he said.
Drawing lessons from the Iran and Russia-Ukraine conflicts, Lt Gen Jain said missile-based stand-off strikes alone cannot address India’s contested border realities, and the forces must be prepared for close-contact warfare as well.
He stressed the importance of “sequencing of effects” in multi-domain operations, pointing to the Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine conflicts where drones, electronic warfare and precision targeting dismantled military build-ups in weeks. He said joint targeting must be seamless, with targets detected by one service prosecutable by another without time lag.
The Vice Chief announced that 2026 and 2027 have been designated as the “Year of Networking and Data Centricity” to enable deeper integration among the three services.
On indigenisation, he said domestic capability-building is essential for sustained operational readiness, aligning with the government’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ vision in defence.
Earlier, Raksha Rajya Mantri Sanjay Seth told the gathering that India’s defence production has reached approximately Rs 1.78 lakh crore, with a target of Rs 3 lakh crore annually. He said the lecture’s theme, ‘National Resurgence through the Lens of Defence Forces’, reflects the national push for self-reliance.
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