Non-contact warfare new normal, India must stay ahead of curve: Lt Gen Adosh Kumar

Pune | The age of non-contact warfare is becoming the new normal as nations devise strategies to win wars without incurring casualties in close combat, a senior Army officer has said.

Modern conflicts increasingly rely on remote power such as surveillance capabilities and cyber operations, and the Indian Army must be ready to dominate in these areas, said Lt Gen Adosh Kumar, Director General, Artillery, Indian Army.

He was delivering a keynote address at the 3rd edition of the Gen S F Rodrigues Memorial Seminar on `Non-Contact Warfare: Capability Building Imperatives for the Indian Army' on Friday.

"Contact on the battlefield may no longer be a prerequisite for decisive action. The age of non-contact warfare is becoming the new normal, and nations around the world have been devising strategies for winning wars without incurring casualties in close combat. As far as we are concerned, the transformation to non-contact warfare was already happening," Lt Gen Kumar said.

Modern conflicts increasingly rely on remote power — surveillance, cyber operations, space assets, long-range precision strikes and autonomous systems — to impose costs on adversaries without traditional battlefield contact, he said, adding that these tools allow militaries to degrade or disable opposing forces while keeping their own personnel safe.

The Indian Army must not only adapt to this transformation but must be fully prepared and geared to operate, dominate and prevail in this environment, Lt Gen Kumar added.

"The lessons from recent conflicts, that is, how contact-heavy units can be neutralised by non-contact precision strikes, have a direct resonance for India. Op Sindoor has demonstrated the power of surveillance, precision and information dominance when employed in synergy. Our space-based assets provided us with timely information that allowed us to anticipate rather than react," he said.

India's precision strike vectors employed at longer ranges created devastating effects, Kumar said.

"Hence, our ability to obtain and decisively act on precise information ensured that while we retained clarity of mind, conversely, our adversary was clouded with confusion. That was non-contact at work. But let me also add that what we achieved in Op Sindoor is just the beginning, not the end. To remain ahead of the curve, we must not merely repeat but must take a quantum leap forward across the spectrum of non-kinetic and kinetic capabilities," he added.

Surveillance is the foundation and backbone of non-contact warfare, Lt Gen Kumar said.

"Wide area imaging, electronic intelligence, payloads, launch on demand systems, these all must be indigenous, reliable and resilient. Equally, the reliability of our space-based positioning and navigation independent of foreign networks must be ensured," he added.

The event was attended by Lt Gen Sandeep Jain, Chief of Staff, Southern Command, senior officers, industry representatives, domain experts and veterans.