Kalam asks security brass to prepare for nuclear, cyber wars

Kalam, who is hailed as the nation's missile man, also told them to prepare a military leadership firmly rooted in integrity to keep out corruption from the defence forces and maintained that warfare was not just about fighting wars, but also enabling peace.

"All around our nation, there are nations which possess nuclear arsenal...Computers with intelligent software will fight in the place of many strategic systems. They will be more powerful -- which will travel at the speed of light -- to destroy the economic capability of countries exceeding the power of nuclear weapons," Kalam said, delivering the 15th Field Marshal K M Carriappa memorial lecture here.

"India has to focus and strengthen its capacity on four fronts. Hence we should visualise the following five scenarios in place before the year 2020. They are: Space-based surveillance and reconnaissance, intelligence, defence, weapons and strategic alliances," he said at the event organised by the Army.

However, the former President did not take the name of any nation while highlighting the challenges posed by them to India's security in the cyber and nuclear domain.

He emphasised the need for "multiple centres with anti-ballistic missile systems, aircraft surveillance with deep penetration strike capabilities...Inter-continental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads beyond 5,000-km range, and intermediate range ballistic missiles with 5,000-km range, whose probability was in sight now."

Kalam, who was earlier the principal scientific advisor to the Central government, said India should pursue "strategic alliances" with neighbours and other critical locations, establish mutually beneficial economic cooperation and "imbibe confidence among neighbours that aligning with democratic India is (of) the paramount importance for their internal peace and prosperity."

Warning that the transformational technologies that could enhance quality of life could become "dangerous tools" in the wrong hands, he said this phenomenon was true not only for technologies, but in social networking too.

"Past animosities, real or perceived enmities, and large inequities in development within nations and globe are waiting to use such networking and technologies for vicious purposes," he said.

"Social evil of corruption forms the other dimension and it cannot be allowed to intrude into the defence systems," he added.

Noting that the challenge was to equip the Indian security establishment to combat the fast-paced technology- driven warfare, Kalam said the whole war environment would be network centric and could be electronically controlled, combined with space,deep sea and ballistic missile encounters.

"The winner of future warfare will be the armed force which can visualise the strength of the enemy, not based on previous wars but based on the current capabilities, and technological advancements in the global scenario," he said.

"Our officers serving in the armed forces will have to get trained in virtual reality based simulated war fronts of all the terrains and all extreme conditions of warfare.

"Walk through during a space, chemical, nuclear and electronic encounters or attacks need to be visualised and proper counter measures, with decision making process, need to be propounded," he added.

Pointing out that future soldiers would be knowledge workers, Kalam said, "the future battlefield would require a synergised team work with joint services operation and use of land, aerospace and ocean as important war theatres."

Advocating the need for leveraging India's cyber knowledge base, the former President said in the electronically linked world, nations were increasingly linked economically and during war, destruction would be more severe and fatal if the economy collapsed.

"Cyber technology is the tool for such type of war. The future war that is powered by cyber war can create destruction effortlessly at the speed of light. The ICBMs and nuclear weapons will be becoming insignificant in the cyber warfare environment," he added.

He called for training of the country's work force, be it armed forces personnel, lawyers, police, judges, and others, on the possibilities of technology-centric crimes and war, warning that "in the absence of such awareness programme, a country can be defeated even without a missile or aircraft attack just through intelligent cyber war."

Without directly mentioning the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008, Kalam said the nation had witnessed how terrorist operations were commanded and controlled using mobile communication devices in the midst of people, armed forces and paramilitary forces.

"In modern day, fight against terrorism (includes) blocking these communication devices using local high powered jammers. In such missions, one of the important strategic needs is fast and secure encryption and decryption. It is an essential tool towards preventing terrorists from achieving coordinated attacks," he added.