Gunners Shot

Article Published in the USI Journal Period:   January 2020 - March 2020 Abstract The employment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in war and peace is proliferating rapidly. These are being used for offensive and defensive roles, to include surveillance, attack and logistics, besides other complimentary tasks. They are changing equations of conflict as was evident in the attack by a swarm of UAVs on the Aramco oilfields and ferrying of arms across the well fenced Indo-Pak border. Their role in non-contact warfare is increasing. In such a scenario, it becomes imperative that effective counter UAV systems are developed. As of now there is absence of a cogent counter UAV philosophy. Some counter UAV measures are being propagated and marketed in an inorganic and isolated manner. There is a requirement to have an overarching and holistic philosophy to counter the UAV threat.  The counter UAV philosophy needs to be based on established threat patterns of adversaries. Thereafter, the vulnera

AI : THE NEW FRONTIER IN WAR FIGHTING     Wining the Wars of the Future   Backdrop 1.      Artificial Intelligence (AI) is likely to cause disruptive changes not only in our society but also in the military. In this context, not only India but the Indian Defence Forces need to make a concerted effort to introduce AI based systems in to the defence especially in the area of Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Cyber, Interoperability, Intelligence Surveillance and Space (C5I2S2R). I have expanded the existing acronym C4SIR (Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence and Reconnaissance) to C5I2S2R by adding the domains of Cyberspace, Internet of Things and Space as these are the domains in which nations will have to build capabilities, if they wish to emerge as significant power. India too needs to develop capabilities in these domains if it has to be a power to reckon with in the region besides being able to deter its

original article @ Raksha Anirveda                                 There is a lot of discussion and action on Artificial Intelligence and other disruptive technologies and how they will impact warfare . The Chinese White Paper on defense at the very outset mentions that the application of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum information, big data, cloud computing and the Internet of Things is gathering pace in the military field. Obviously, they are going to bet big on these subjects.  On 01 Feb 19, USA activated an AI Task Force as a part of the Army Futures Command. The AI task force is to be based at Carnegie Mellon University. It aims to harness breakthroughs in AI and apply them to a range of Army Operations. These operations are varied and ranging from Talent Management in Human Resources, Predictive Maintenance of equipment and extend to support in projects related to Army’s Six Modernization Programs.  The idea is to unsettle the U

Defexpo 2018 at Chennai IIT Madras entered the field of defence on its own steam in Apr 18. It established a stall in the Defexpo 2018 in Chennai. Many of its students and faculty got their first exposure to the exciting world of aerospace and defense. It even held a seminar in the event. However, the seminar was poorly attended since it was a last-minute inclusion, and many did not even know that IIT Madras was going to hold a seminar. Since then things have changed and IIT Madras has traversed some distance. The Institute is participating in the forthcoming Defexpo 2020 at Lucknow with a much bigger footprint. Intervening Activities The two years in between have been all about taking small steps but with a lot of enthusiasm. The Institute participated in several events to formulate its thoughts so that some original ideas could bubble forth. The Institute started collaborating with the Tamil Nadu Government to establish the Defence Industrial Corridor. To