Networking can win war – The Economic Times

The nature of threats faced by defence forces is changing. Yet, the basic principle of establishing an overwhelming war-fighting advantage remains the same – pierce the fog of war quickly and act decisively. In the Indian context, there is clarion call for jointness in operations of the armed forces through interoperability of assets and formations. Towards this endeavour, the position of the chief of defence staff (CDS) was created in December 2019 with an aim to strengthen the process of joint planning, operations and procurement.

Network-centric operations (NCO) are a critical enabler that assist the armed forces in increasing speed of operations and ensuring jointness in response to external threats…. NCO can reduce the time required for taking tactical decisions while providing flexibility to change strategic postures quickly. The focus of NCO adoption, colloquially called digital transformation, aims to connect every function in the organisation seamlessly and align these functions towards achieving larger organisational goals.

A key element of this transformation exercise is the base networking infrastructure that enables fast and secure transmission of information across users, assets and decision makers. Furthermore, a robust network and communications infrastructure supports the use of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud applications, etc….

From ‘Roadmap for Network Centric Operations (NCO)’, KPMG