Issue Brief on “Indian Land Warfare Doctrine & Recent Developments: Implications for Pakistan”

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In the past two decades, the Indian Army has made several doctrinal shifts. From Sunderji doctrine to Cold Start Doctrine (CSD) and then to the latest one, the Land Warfare Doctrine (LWD) in 2018, which is a supplement to the 2017 Joint Doctrine Indian Armed Forces. The LWD came in December 2018, which discussed the role of emerging technologies in future warfare.[1]

The key tenets of LWD are that the Indian military’s focus would be on modernisation.[2] Future warfare would be quite different so equipping the Indian military with technology is of great importance. Countering and waging multidomain warfare i.e., Hybrid Warfare (HW) is another important feature of the LWD. Upgradation of existing Cyber Warfare (CW) capabilities, developing capabilities to dominate adversary in Information Warfare Domain (IW) and developing Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities are some important features of LWD.[3] Along the western border, the Indian army would be prepared for a swift military response for ensuring security so Integrated Battlegroups (IBGs) would be deployed and operational capabilities would be strengthened to increase punitive response options. For continuous surveillance of borders, new satellites would be developed and employed as well as for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), technology would be upgraded.[4] Domestic defence capabilities would also be enhanced.

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