Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday called upon the military to remain future-ready to deal with any security challenges by drawing lessons from Operation Sindoor and other ongoing global conflicts.
He asked the top commanders of the armed forces to cultivate the “element of surprise” to remain unpredictable to the nation’s adversaries and secure a strategic edge in any given situation.
The four-day military conflict with Pakistan in May last year, Rajnath said, signalled India’s collective resolve and new military ethos, and the “short-duration, deep-penetration, high-intensity and high-impact operation” compelled Pakistan to surrender.
Addressing the Joint Commanders’ Conference in Jaipur, the day after the country marked the first anniversary of the operation, he said: “Operation Sindoor is a testament to the swift, precise and joint response of the Indian defence forces to safeguard national interests. The operation was a demonstration of India’s growing capabilities and a symbol of the nation’s collective resolve and new military ethos.”
The conference, themed “Military Capability in New Domains”, carried out a comprehensive review of the combat preparedness of the three services amid the evolving regional security situation.
Underscoring the need to strengthen capabilities in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, data analytics and secure communication networks, he said future conflicts would increasingly be shaped by hybrid threats, information dominance and operations conducted simultaneously across cyber, space, electromagnetic and cognitive domains.
Lauding the progress in enhancing integration and technology adoption across the three services, he said: “Future wars will not be won solely through weaponry, but through innovative thinking and enhanced synergy.”
Later, Rajnath released a joint doctrine for integrated communication architecture, aimed at strengthening “clarity, interoperability and integrated communications across the armed forces in future multi-domain operations”.