India draws new red line against terror, hope operation brought lesson for adversary: CDS Gen Chauhan

Singapore: Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan on Saturday said India’s Operation Sindoor has drawn a “new red line” of intolerance against terror, and expressed hope that the military action has brought “some lessons for our adversary also”.

In response to queries related to the recent operation and the idea of “strategic stability” in India-Pakistan ties, during an event held here under the Shangri-La Dialogue, the CDS further said, it takes two hands to join to clap together, “hopefully they understand this”.

Operation Sindoor was launched early on May 7 to destroy nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 people dead.

All subsequent retaliations to Pakistani offensives were carried out under this operation.

The four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan had brought the two nuclear-armed neighbours to the edge of a wider conflict that ended with an understanding on stopping the military actions on May 10.

On a query on the lesson learned from the conflict, Gen Chauhan said India used indigenous systems and platforms from other countries as well during the operation.

“We were able to penetrate air defence as long as 300 km with pinpoint accuracy and targets, airfields and infrastructure, deep inside Pakistan. That indicates the functionality of the equipment,” he said.

Gen Chauhan and several other defence chiefs or representatives from different countries delivered addresses during the seminar — ‘Defence Innovation Solutions for Future Challenges’ held as part of the Shangri-La Dialogue, a key summit of Asia.

“Instability in the world is on the rise courtesy non-state actors and terrorists. They play a major role in providing the spark for conflicts,” Gen Chauhan said in his address.

“The emergence of new domains of warfare, information, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum and the cognitive domain are fast blurring traditional lines of conflict and increasing the potential for unconventional attacks and hybrid warfare,” he said.

He also underlined that to survive in the future, military organisations will have to be inventive, innovative and ingenious.

The CDS also said that “India remains committed to contributing to global peace and security, through responsible behaviour, a unique geographical position, historical experience and development aspirations...our approach to security challenges”.

Later, he fielded a range of questions during the seminar, including on Operation Sindoor and its implications.

“What India has done, politically, they have drawn a new red line of intolerance against terror, and this I hope, this particular operation, that should bring about some lessons for our adversary also, and hopefully they learn that this is a limit of India’s tolerance,” Gen Chauhan said.

“We have been subjected to this proxy war of terror for almost about two decades and more, and we lost lot of people...we want to put an end to it,” he said.

Asked whether India feels there is a strategic stability after the operation, the CDS said “to bring about strategic stability.. it takes two hands together to clap, join together, hopefully they understand this and we can then look at things”.

On a query on the planned integrated theatre commands, Gen Chauhan said, “We cannot give any timeline for these integrated theatre commands”.

The CDS said “we have achieved some modicum amount of success in this particular endeavour of ours, some of it was exhibited during the recently-concluded operation, in which at least we had joint planning, joint intelligence, joint working together, logistics, etc”.

“We will have a look at how did it play out, create something that is more India- centric...,” the CDS added without elaborating.

Earlier in his address, Gen Chauhan spoke of the factors that are changing the character and nature of warfare.

“Predicting the future is perilous to say the least, all what we can do is to talk about trends, actually. I believe, the future challenges that we may face, arise out of the complexity of the emerging geopolitical dynamics and the unprecedented… in the march of technology,” he said.

Today, the rise of unmanned systems and do-it-yourself kind of kits for warfare is reducing the economic and human cost of warfare, leading to “increasing propensity to use of force”, the CDS said.

This is happening “without formal declaration of wars”, he cautioned.

The democratisation of cutting-edge technologies and the resultant proliferation of weapon systems, is “empowering non-state players, including netizens, citizens”, in today’s deeply connected world, and the capacity to shape thoughts, perceptions, and hence the environment, he said.

In his address, he emphasised that technology is reshaping warfare, wars and fighting.

In his address, he emphasised that today, non-linear simultaneous operations are impacting the core principles of war.

The transition of weapon systems from subsonic to supersonic, hypersonic, long-range precision weapons and maturing of stealth technologies, fractional orbital bombardment systems and drones with swarm technologies are “giving celerity, speed and velocity a new meaning, enabling engagment of targets anywhere and anytime”, he said.

Unmanned and autonomous system along with a concept of man-unmanned teaming and the advancement in robotics will soon introduce the concept of combat between man and machines, or even between machines and machines, the CDS added.

Quantum technologies are enabling secure communications, and advancing computing which will add to the complexity of warfare, and hence challenges for preparing for it, he said.

“We are simplifying the procurement procedures so that we are able to fight today’s war with tomorrow’s technology rather than yesterday’s systems,” the CDS added.