India News | "We Have to Develop Our Own AI Layer for Military Services:" Defence Secretary
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Defence Secretary said that, in the area of AI, because of the use of AI as a way of decision support, target acquisition, you know, data fusion leading to a you know sensor to shoot a loop. That the kind of data that it involves is such that we have to develop our own AI layer for our military AI layer for our services.
New Delhi [India], October 23 (ANI): India is restructuring its defence framework to address modern cyber threats and drone warfare by scaling up domestic missile production and developing a military Artificial Intelligence layer, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said.
At the KPMG event on Friday, Singh highlighted that India has advanced significantly in establishing a comprehensive multi-layered air defence grid.
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He said, "In the area of AI, because the use of AI as a way of decision support, target acquisition, you know, data fusion leading to a you know sensor to shoot a loop. That the kind of data that it involves is such that we have to develop our own AI layer for our military AI layer for our services."
Detailing the structural rollout, Defence Secretary noted that national compute resources are being mobilised alongside selected private partners.
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"We are working with the AI mission to develop that compute. For that is already being procured, and we intend to sort of piggyback on some of these private industry partners who have already been selected by the AI mission to help develop that AI layer for our armed forces," he added.
While national technological sovereignty remains the absolute priority to prevent critical system exposure, the establishment maintains that selective international partnerships with trusted allies will remain open.
He said, "Because nobody else will give you that technology, or because it's too critical a technology to rely on foreign companies. We intend to do it ourselves to the extent we can, but of course collaboration with friendly foreign countries will not be ruled out."
Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh further noted that India has taken foundational steps to counter contemporary threats by fully networking its airspace control architecture.
Addressing the structural evolution of national air defence, Singh highlighted that the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) acts as a unified digital backbone, aligning with the Prime Minister's vision for a comprehensive, indigenous multi-layered shield.
Defence Scercratry said, "India has taken early steps in that direction, our Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS), which is our airspace control system, is fully networked across platforms, across radar ground level, across our aerial platforms, and across our air defense systems, which is what the Prime Minister had in mind when he announced some kind of Iron Dome kind of a project for India."
"While long-term modernisation plans involve systematically replacing vintage hardware with cutting-edge defensive systems, military planners have identified unexpected tactical value in older platforms. Some sort of elements of that are already in place, and the intent is to make it bigger in terms of both much stronger air defense capabilities, replacing a lot of vintage equipment by upgrading that inventory, although interestingly a lot of vintage equipment, air defense guns, for example, retrofitted with radars are extremely useful again because of the fact that they are much cheaper to use against drones as compared to utilizing missiles, for example, which cost say somewhere between 5 to 10 crores each. So, since you mentioned asymmetric warfare, there is a lot of these old air defence guns, suitably modernised and networked, have become much more useful again in this new era of warfare," Rajesh Kumar Singh added.
Shifting focus towards large capital weapons like Rs missile intercepting Rs 10 k drone Defence Secretary said, addressed the trk economic asymmetries where inexpensive mass-produced kamikaze drones routinely challenge high-value capital assets.
He said, "obviously, drones used in large numbers, particularly used as kamikaze drones or luxury munitions, often be at much cheaper rates than, say ballistic missiles have become important."
To counter the cost disadvantage of deploying expensive capital hardware against low-cost targets, defence officials have prioritised scaling up indigenous ballistic missile production to drive down unit costs, drawing lessons from recent global conflicts.
He said, "Increasing the scale of production of ballistic missiles is also quite critical because then you bring down the cost, which is what the Iranians have shown as well, and as temporarily in my charge as chairman of DRDO, that is one of the first steps that we took. Actually, that all our conventional missile technologies that we have developed over the years have been put out in the public domain."
To establish the robust industrial surge capacity required for future high-intensity warfare, the government has decentralised legacy missile development portfolios, making accumulated research accessible to domestic manufacturers.
"We have almost 17 large private and some public players who've either taken POTs or are in the process of taking technology transfers for different ranges of conventional missiles, because it is very clear that the scale of production of drones and ballistic missiles, conventional, that you will need for future warfare, is going to be at a much larger scale than what we might have anticipated earlier. In any case, building that surge capacity is required to build up your deterrence as well," Singh said. (ANI)
(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)