India Must Be Ready for Short, Intense Wars and Long Conflicts: CDS Anil Chauhan

Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan has underscored the critical imperative for the Indian armed forces to cultivate comprehensive readiness across a spectrum of conflict scenarios, encompassing brief yet ferocious high-intensity engagements designed to counter terrorism and protracted, resource-intensive land-based confrontations necessitated by persistent territorial disputes with neighbouring countries.

Delivering a keynote address at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay on Monday, General Chauhan articulated India's defence posture in the context of facing two nuclear-capable adversaries—one a declared nuclear weapon state and the other effectively nuclear-armed—emphasising the absolute necessity of maintaining robust deterrence thresholds that cannot be allowed to erode under any circumstances.

He explicitly advocated for operational preparedness to execute swift, decisive actions akin to the recent Operation Sindoor as a deterrent against cross-border terrorism, while simultaneously building sustained capabilities for extended conventional warfare over contested land borders, though he cautioned that every effort must be made to avert escalation into such prolonged hostilities.

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General Chauhan characterised the evolving landscape of warfare as standing at the threshold of a third revolutionary phase, which he termed "convergence warfare," driven by the synergistic integration of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, edge computing, hypersonic systems, advanced materials, and robotics that collectively reshape both the nature and conduct of military operations far beyond previous eras dominated by fewer transformative innovations.

He elaborated that the future battlefield will demand seamless multi-domain operations spanning land, sea, air, cyber, space, and even the cognitive domain as an operational necessity rather than a discretionary choice, with Operation Sindoor serving as a compelling exemplar where the simultaneous orchestration of all domains at high tempo delivered a conclusive victory for India in merely four days, highlighting the indispensable requirement for enhanced interoperability and unified command across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and emerging specialised forces.

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