IDS and CDS News, Updates and Discussions

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This thread is for News, Updates and Discussions related to Integrated Defence Staff and Chief of Defence staff.

 

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CDS Gen Anil Chauhan releases Joint Doctrine for Amphibious Operations​

Following the release of Joint Doctrine for Cyberspace Operations, the Joint Doctrine for Amphibious Operations is the second Joint Doctrine released this year and it provides due focus on Jointness and Integration of Armed Forces in general and Amphibious Operations in particular.​

CDS Gen Anil Chauhan releases Joint Doctrine for Amphibious Operations

In a landmark event, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan released the Joint Doctrine

pib.gov.in

 

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Excerpts from JOINT DOCTRINE Indian ARMED FORCES - 2018

National Values : India's National Values are our enduring beliefs reflected in the ideals of our society. National Values evolve from our Nation's culture and history, and are based on our enduring social, religious, moral and ideological principles. There is a co-relation between and among all values, no value stands alone and each contributes to the other. Our core National values are best reflected in the Preamble of our Constitution, which are; sovereignty, socialism, secularism, democracy, republican character, justice, liberty, equality, fraternity, human dignity, unity and integrity of our Nation, respect for our diversity, peaceful co-existence, pluralism, tolerance and international peace defined by a just international order .

National Aim : The National Aim, as gleaned from our Constitution and strategic vision enunciated by our leadership over the years, is directed towards'Comprehensive National Development'. Our National Aim is to create a conducive external and internal security environment for unhindered and inclusive socio-economic development.

National Interests : India's National Interests are derived from the need to protect and preserve our core values as enshrined in our Constitution which are summarised as follows :-​

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(a) To preserve the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity ofIndia.​

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(b) To preserve the democratic, secular and federal character of the Indian Republic.​

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(c) To safeguard India's existing and emerging strategic, political, economic and military goals in consonance with the National Aim.​

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(d) To ensure a stable, secure and peaceful internal and external environment conducive to unhindered economic growth and prosperity.​

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(e) To contribute towards promotion of international peace and stability.


National Security : National Security to us implies the protection, preservation and promotion of our National Interests against internal and external threats and challenges. Maintenance of our National Security is critical as it provides us the necessary freedom, and removes all fear and hindrance in our pursuit of prosperity and happiness. India's security is an integral component of its development process. National Security and the underpinning strategies have both National and International dimensions. National Security not only entails Military Security but also influences our Politico - Diplomatic structure, Water, Economy, Energy, Food, Health, Education, Technology,Cyber, Space, Nuclear deterrence and Environment

National Security Objectives : National Security Objectives flow from and are designed to safeguardour National Interests. National Security Objectives, like interests, influenceour political, military, and economic dimensions. They provide a frameworkfor the formulation of National Security Policy and ensuing Strategies. India'sNational Security Objectives are :-​

(a) Maintain a credible deterrent capability to safeguard NationalInterests.​

(b) Ensure defence of national territory, air space, maritime zones including our trade routes and cyber space.​

(c) Maintain a secure internal environment to guard against threats to our unity and development.​

(d) Expand and strengthen ''Constructive Engagement'' with other Nations to promote regional, global peace and international stability.​

National Security Policy : National Security Policy is based on our National Security Objectives and the components of National Power, weighed against the prevailing and assessed future domestic and global environment. It shall entail inherent rightof self-defence, possession of deterrence capability, strategic autonomy, self reliance, cooperation, security and friendly relations with countries.

National Security Strategy : Our National Security Strategy (NSS) primarily revolves around safeguarding our Nation from any type of internal and external threats/aggression. In addition, our NSS encompasses preservation and strengthening of India's democratic polity, development process, internal stability and unity in its unique multi-cultural settings. Our NSS also addresses the general well-being of our vast population, the vitality of our economy in context of globalisation and the rapidly advancing technological world. A regional and an international environment of peace and cooperation will facilitate the safeguarding of our interests. Even though we have no formally articulated National Security Policy and Strategy, it does not imply that they do not exist or are not sufficiently understood .Central to our NSS is to maintain an effective conventional and nuclear deterrent capability.

National Military Objectives: National Military Objectives (NMOs) accruing out from NationalSecurity requirements are as follows :-​

(a) Prevent war through strategic and conventional deterrence across the full spectrum of military conflict, to ensure the defence ofIndia, our National Interests and sovereignty.​

(b) Prosecute military operations to defend territorial integrityand ensure a favourable end state during war to achieve stated/implied political objective (s).​

(c) Provide assistance to ensure Internal Security, when called upon to do so.​

(d) Be prepared for contingencies at home and abroad to renderHumanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), Aid to CivilAuthority and International Peacekeeping, when called upon to do so.​

(e) Enable required degree of self-sufficiency in defence equipment and technology through indigenization to achieve desired degree of technological independence by 2035.​

https://ids.nic.in/WriteReadData/Document/2/13/1718bbb2-cb9c-4ef5-9843-cb670e58afb7.pdf

https://ids.nic.in/content/doctrines

 

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contd..
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HIGHER DEFENCE ORGANISATION

The Government of India (GoI) is responsible for ensuring the'Defence of India' and every part thereof. The Supreme Command of theArmed Forces of the Union of India is vested with the President of India who is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. National Defence is to bemanaged through Cabinet Control which implies that PM has to get Cabinet approval for every significant decision, both during peace and war. The secretarial aspect for this function is discharged through the MoD which provides the policy frame work and necessary wherewithal to the ArmedForces to discharge their responsibilities in the Defence of the Nation. TheRM is the head of the MoD.

The Ministry of Defence acts as an interface between Armed Forces and other Ministries/Departments/ the Parliament. The principal task of theMoD is to obtain policy directions of the Government on all defence and security related matters and communicate them for implementation to the Service Headquarters (SHQs), Inter-Service Organisations, Production Establishments, Research and Development (R&D) Organisations, etc. The MoD is accountable to Parliament for all expenditure and responds to all debates concerning Defence. The Ministry also arranges finances and wherewithal for the Armed Forces.​

https://ids.nic.in/WriteReadData/Document/2/13/1718bbb2-cb9c-4ef5-9843-cb670e58afb7.pdf

 

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DOCTRINE OF THE Indian AIR FORCE

Offensive Action : In conventional wars, offensive action was the prime means of seizing the initiative and establishing moral ascendancy over the enemy. This entailed control over the purpose, scope and intensity of operations while placing premium on early action. In unconventional or sub-conventional conflict,the initiative may not be with the state and pre-emptive action without proper intelligence may prove counterproductive. However,the freedom to act at a place and time of one’s choosing even while reacting to a scenario, would wrest the initiative from the enemy at any level of conflict. Therefore, the emphasis should be more on achieving and exploiting freedom of action across all levels and domains of war as well as denial of the same to the opponent. This would need accurate real time intelligence, physical and information security, a sound and focused strategy, technology enabled forces, sound deployment, cooperation of effort, prompt offensive action and robust logistics. The side that loses freedom of action loses its ability to influence the conduct of war.

https://indianairforce.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2MB.pdf

 

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General Anil Chauhan’s Comments at IISS Shangri la May 2025:​

1. Acknowledgment and Context:
   • "Thank you Nance, distinguished delegates, esteemed colleagues and honored guests. I'm glad to be amongst you for the Shangri-La Dialogue 2025 and I'm particularly pleased to be part of this special session on defense innovation solutions for future challenges as it allows me to share my thoughts on the subject of paramount importance how innovation in defense capabilities can address the evolving security challenges of our times."
   • General Chauhan expresses gratitude for the opportunity to participate and highlights the significance of the topic in addressing evolving security challenges.
2. Challenges of Predicting Future 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 emerging geopolitical dynamics and the unprecedented exploration in the march of technology."
   • He underscores the difficulty of forecasting future conflicts and identifies key drivers as geopolitical dynamics and rapid technological advancements.
3. Impact of Technology on Warfare:
   • "Let me focus on the military aspects arising out of these two trends which are changing I believe the nature as well as character of warfare."
   • He emphasizes that technological and geopolitical trends are fundamentally altering both the nature and character of warfare.
4. Rise of Unmanned Systems and Non-Kinetic Means:
   • "Today the rise of unmanned systems and do-it-yourself kind of kit for warfare is reducing the economic and human cost of warfare leading to increasing propensity to use of force. This is happening without formal declaration of wars. The emergence of non-kinetic means especially in the domain of cyber or information domain also provides wider options to impose one's will on and to attain political or military objectives. Thus adding to this proclivity instability in the world is on the rise."
   • He notes that unmanned systems and DIY warfare kits lower the barriers to using force, often without formal war declarations, and non-kinetic means (e.g., cyber and information domains) increase options for achieving objectives, contributing to global instability.
5. Role of Non-State Actors and Technology Proliferation:
   • "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. The democratization of cutting-edge technologies and the resultant proliferation of weapon systems is empowering non-state players."
   • He highlights how non-state actors and terrorists exploit advanced technologies, which are increasingly accessible, to fuel conflicts.
6. Influence of Citizens in a Connected World:
   • "Today citizens in today's deeply interconnected world have the capacity to shape thoughts, perception and hence the environment. The option of nation states using the above for waging proxy war comes at a time when human and economic cost thereby adding to a rising instability. Some of these spiral out of control leading to conflicts."
   • He discusses how interconnected citizens can influence perceptions, enabling proxy wars by nation-states, which further destabilizes the global environment.
7. Four Major Trends in Warfare:
   • Sensor Technology and Situational Awareness: "First, the maturing of sensor technology and the proliferation in the domain of land, air, sea, and space has led to increased transparency and situational awareness. Today nonlinear simultaneous operations are impacting the core principles of war like surprise and concentration of force throwing up new ideas like demassification of the battlefield and deception over surprise."
   • Advanced Weapon Systems: "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 solidity that speed and velocity a new meaning enabling engagements of targets anywhere and anytime."
   • Unmanned and Autonomous Systems: "Unmanned and autonomous systems along with the concept of man-unmanned teaming and the advancement in robotics may soon introduce the concept of combat between man and machines or even between machines and machines gradually leading to intelligent and automated kill chains."
   • Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Technologies: "And fourthly, artificial intelligence, machine learning, large language models, edge computing will enable better data analytics and decision making. This is leading to intelligentization of warfare. Quantum technologies are enabling secure communication and advancing computing which will add to the complexity of warfare and hence the challenges for preparing for them."
   • He outlines four key technological trends reshaping warfare: enhanced sensors, advanced weaponry, autonomous systems, and AI-driven intelligentization, each contributing to new battlefield dynamics.
8. Emergence of New Domains of Warfare:
   • "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 identifies new domains that complicate traditional warfare, increasing the risk of unconventional and hybrid conflicts.
9. Application of Darwin’s Principles to Military Innovation:
   • "Talking about innovation, I have often actually quoted Charles Darwin who in his original work Origin of Species had identified five issues for any species to survive. They were variation, inheritance, selection, timing, and adaptation. What applies to organisms, I believe also applies to organizations. Whatever is static, unyielding, and unadaptable is vulnerable to extinction."
   • He draws an analogy between Darwin’s principles of survival and the need for military organizations to adapt and innovate to avoid obsolescence.
10. Additional Principles for Future Survival:
    • "Well, Charles Darwin spoke about the past, how past has transformed into the present. But in today’s seminar, we are actually talking about the future. And in future, if we have to survive, I may add three more ‘I’s, that is to be inventive, innovative, and ingenious."
    • He proposes three additional principles—inventiveness, innovation, and ingenuity—as critical for future military survival.
11. India’s Approach to Defence Innovation:
    • Private Sector Involvement: "We have opened up defense manufacturing to private sector, thus creating a competitive environment which has promoted indigenous research and development, encouraged innovation, increased defense production and reduced foreign dependency, and promoted economic growth."
    • Leveraging Academia: "India’s strength lies in its academia. We produce the largest number of STEM graduates—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—in the whole world, and our IITs, Indian Institute of Technologies, have made a mark globally."
    • Innovation for Defence Excellence (IDEX): "So what we have done is we brought our defense research and development startups, MSMEs, and academia under one platform under programs like Innovation for Defence Excellence, IDEX. Now friends, foreign countries also pitch the challenges for defense innovation to the Indian academia and research institutes. So if you have a problem, you can tell Indians."
    • Simplified Procurement: "We are simplifying our procurement procedures so that we are able to fight today’s war with tomorrow’s technology rather than yesterday’s weapon systems. Aligning a procurement cycle with technological cycle is hence important."
    • Tactics-Led Modernization: "India are also attempting to pursue a tactics-led approach toward modernization to some measure... in which tactics, training, procedures are not being modified to suit platforms but rather all this is being to identify and create platforms for but that is suited for our tactics, geography, and peculiarities of our adversaries."
    • Future Operational Analysis Group: "We have also opened up a Future Operation Analysis Group in the Ministry of Defence. This has been created to analyze how future battlefield will evolve owing to technological advancements and their applications in all domains of warfare and recommend a path for a future research and development so that Indian armed forces can be future ready."
    • He details India’s multi-faceted approach, including private sector involvement, leveraging academia, streamlining procurement, adopting a tactics-led modernization strategy, and establishing a dedicated group to study future warfare trends.
12. Holistic Innovation Beyond Hardware:
    • "As we look towards the future, we recognize that meaningful innovation must extend beyond hardware to encompass organizational structures, decision-making processes, and human resource development. The true potential of emerging technologies can only be realized through corresponding innovations in doctrines and organization cultures."
    • He emphasizes that innovation must go beyond equipment to include organizational and doctrinal changes to fully harness new technologies.
13. India’s Commitment to Global Peace:
    • "To conclude, India remains committed to contributing towards global peace and security through responsible behavior. Our unique geographical position, historical experience, and development aspirations inform our approach to addressing security challenges. We believe that forums such as this dialogue are essential for fostering understanding and cooperation in our collective pursuit for peace and stability in the world."
    • He reaffirms India’s commitment to global peace and the value of international dialogues like the Shangri-La Dialogue.
14. Response to Interoperability and Collaboration (Question from Ano Elesum):
    • "This particular question was addressed to me, you know, how do we do it in this world where one nation or all nations do not may not have the same kind of capabilities... So what I believe is this a time of leveraging one strength with the other. Say like, as I said in my talk, that India may have the largest STEM graduates. So we have that huge capability of the academia. Some nations may have the technology, we may have the numbers... So there can be partnerships where we can share technology. So when we say that we’re going to make everything in India does not mean that everything will be made in India. We know our limitations. So this has to be done in a very collaborative kind of a manner and our strengths we know and if the other partners’ strengths are known, we can all work together. So this will help innovate because in different geographies of the world, there are different ideas and you may think differently how to do a particular thing and I may think differently, but when we look at it together, we can come to an optimum solution."
    • He advocates for collaborative partnerships to leverage complementary strengths, such as India’s academic talent and other nations’ technological advancements, to foster innovation and address capability disparities.
15. Response to Obsolescence Management and Innovation (Question from Yasmin Ain):
    • "I’d like to address a couple of issues that were raised. One was regarding obsolescence management. I think that’s important as we acquire something new, you got to discard also. That’s very, very important. In fact, I haven’t given it a thought. My daughter is an architect and she talks always about sustainability and circularity, circular architecture. So you should be able to circulate that what is old into new. And I think again over here innovation and adaptiveness would be important. Ukraine has done it wonderfully in this particular war. The same equipment being modified and used again."
    • On Developing New Tactics and Platforms: "As regarding being innovative, how do we become innovative and develop these new tactics or procedures or even platforms, how do we get these ideas? I think one of the ways which we are experimenting in India is which I said was future warfare group where we run a course, structured for about officers which is rank-agnostic, so we have two-star officers also and a major also running that same course... So their thinking is stagnated into a particular service bracket and they think similarly. But when you put officers of different service brackets and different services, then of course they will come out with different sort of ideas and something similar is the approach we are following in IDEX program in which we are involving a large number of academia, and mind you that academia has no experience of warfare, they’re actually civilian students, and they’re giving a military problem to them to find out a particular solution, scientific solution to it, and sometimes the results can be astonishing."
    • He addresses obsolescence by advocating for a circular approach to repurposing old equipment and discusses innovative methods like rank-agnostic courses and the IDEX program to generate new ideas through diverse perspectives.
16. Response to Human Resource Challenges and Mindset (Question from Daniel Abdul Rahman):
    • "The young gentleman had said about human resource. This is going to be an important factor. When I joined the armed forces, probably physical fitness, I’m an infantry officer, so physical fitness and firing are the hallmark. These are two things. If you did this well, you are a good soldier. No longer today. You have to be a cyber expert. Today you should have some information technology skills. That’s becoming essential. So you may be, some people may be, a large number of soldiers today in infantry battalion should be able to fly drones today. So you require different kind of skill sets and this is changing very fast and if you have similar kind of rules and structures to recruit and train people, then we will not be able to cope up with this. In India, we’ve recently experimented with a new system of recruitment which is known as Agnipath, that is trial by fire, and which we get soldiers only for about four years and thereafter about retain some percentage out of it and then send back people into the environment. So every time we get young people with fresh thoughts and minds rather than having the same soldiers earlier days which used to work for about 17 or 20 years and then go home. So we have simpler kind of soldiers. So we have to have a right mix of experience and young blood and young thought process. So this I think is important and it’s important for all armed forces."
    • He highlights the evolving skill sets required for modern soldiers, including cyber and IT expertise, and describes India’s Agnipath recruitment system to bring in younger, tech-savvy personnel while balancing experience.
17. Response to India-US Defence Partnership and Regulatory Reform (Question from U. McGre):
    • On India-US Partnership and IDEX: "Sir, the question about defense partnership with Americans and the success of INDUS. I think I briefly mentioned only the Indian part of it, that IDEX program in which we involve the academia, and briefly I also mentioned it when answering one of the questions. So INDUS is one program in which we are collaborating with Americans, and they have the defense industry problems are then put up for the Indian academia and for Indians which we see that two problems we have given to the Americans. So those problems have been given to the industry and now people will look at those kind of solutions and then we’ll shortlist companies out of that. So this is where we are, but this is what I’d offered also that since we have a large pool of STEM graduates, people who are university graduates who may not have an idea of warfare, war, but yet they can think differently and produce some kind of a solution. So that I think is important."
    • He discusses the success of the INDUS program in fostering collaboration with the US by leveraging India’s academic resources and highlights the potential for similar partnerships with other nations.
18. Response to Integrated Theatre Commands and Strategic Stability (Question from V. Sali):
    • On Integrated Theatre Commands: "Let me answer this question about integrated theatre commands, an experiment which India is likely to implement ever since CDS was appointed in our country, and there was a lot of hopes, and one of my major tasks was to create the spirit of jointness in the services and physically integrate number of processes in the three services which we are doing slightly differently and in a standalone kind of manner. It’s been two, two and a half years now, and we’ve achieved some modicum amount of success in this particular endeavor of ours, and some of it was exhibited during the recently concluded operation in which at least we had this joint planning, joint intelligence, joint working together, logistics, etc. All this were brought into one fold, and this application of force was done in a joint kind of a manner. So there cannot be any timelines for creation of this integrated theatre commands. We’ve learned from friends and partners, and this particular event also will throw up a few lessons for all the three services, and so some of them may be, you know, draw different kind of lessons. We’re going to still reconcile. It’s just about a few weeks from this operation, and we’ll have a look at how did it play out, what were the shortcomings, and then we’ll create something which is workable and more which is India-centric, which looks after Indian requirements. So that we will do shortly."
    • On Strategic Stability with Pakistan: "Talking about strategic stability, what India has done is politically they have drawn a new red lines of the tolerance against terror, and this I hope this particular operation, it’s a multi, basically lying in multi-domain, so that should bring about some lessons for our adversary also, and hopefully they learn that this is a limit of India’s tolerance. We’ve been subjected to this proxy war and terror for the past almost about two decades or maybe more, and we’ve lost a lot of people, and this is we want to put an end to it. So hopefully they understand this, and we can then look at things differently."
    • He outlines progress toward integrated theatre commands, emphasizing joint operations demonstrated in a recent conflict, and discusses India’s redefined stance against terrorism to achieve strategic stability with Pakistan.
19. Response to Lessons from Recent Conflict with Pakistan (Question from Shashank Joshi):
    • "Talking about what were the kind of lessons which we had drawn from this particular conflict. You know that in this particular conflict, we had not only Indian systems which were fielded in this conflict, but equipment from vast number of countries, means India doesn’t depend on one nation for its defense needs. So it’s a number of capabilities which were put together, and most of these capabilities were put to good effects, the results of which were visible, the evidence of which was demonstrated, and most of the systems actually functioned quite well. It’ll be difficult to comment at this particular point of time the equipment which was used by the other side, the capabilities of that equipment, but you’re aware that we were able to penetrate air defenses as long as 300 kilometers with pinpoint accuracy and target airfields and infrastructure deep inside Pakistan. So that indicates the functionality of the equipment. So, but a lot of work still needs to be done as to what was used and how, what happened in this."
    • He shares insights from a recent conflict, noting the effective use of diverse, multi-national equipment to penetrate Pakistani air defenses with precision, while acknowledging the need for further analysis.

IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2025 | Session 1: Defence Innovation Solutions for Future Challenges​

View: https://youtu.be/jigDJQWSSuA