NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court collegiumEvolution of technology has impacted warfare but technological advantage may just be reduced to a tactical level when it is taken away from the larger strategic context and regarded as the “sole driver” of success in a war, Army Chief General Manoj Pande said on Wednesday.
In his address at a seminar here, he also said technologies are emerging in new unchartered domains, and “revolutionising and establishing a ‘new normal’ in different fields”.
Gen Pande further said technology has also emerged as the “new strategic arena of competition, driving geo-political powerplays and is being leveraged for weaponisation of many domains, ranging from information to supply chains”.The Army chief was addressing a gathering during a seminar on “Year of Technology Absorption: Empowering the Soldier” organised by a defence think-tank at Manekshaw Centre at Delhi Cantonment. Technology from a warfighting perspective, has undergone significant evolution over the centuries, and has “impacted warfare in a profound manner,” he said. Gen Pande cited the examples of rifles, railroads, telegraphs and ironclad ships in the 19th-century wars; the machine gun, tank, aeroplane, aircraft carriers and atomic weapons in the 20th-century wars; to the niche technologies that have today permeated into the military domain. History shows that armies that have managed to adopt and integrate new technologies have gained advantage on the battlefield and achieved success, he underlined. Infusion of technologies such as computers, radars, code-breaking and aircraft production by the Allies in World War II was instrumental in securing victory for them, while in the early years of the War, it was Germany and Japan which leveraged their industrial and technological capacities to “accrue advantages of scale’, over the Allies, the Army chief added.
“On the other hand, technological advantage may just be reduced to a tactical level, when it is taken away from the larger strategic context and regarded as the sole driver of success in war. Vietnam and Afghanistan are examples of the same,” he asserted. “Therefore, understanding of new technologies, harnessing their potential and accruing strategic superiority -- is the essence of leveraging technology from a warfighting perspective,” the Army
chief said.