On March 11, 2026, Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi addressed officers at the College of Defence Management (CDM) in Secunderabad and articulated what may prove to be a watershed statement in Indian military doctrine. Drawing explicitly from the lessons of Operation Sindoor, General Dwivedi declared that the Indian Army must shift from a reactive approach to a proactive deterrence posture, and that this transformation must be anchored in the integration of multi-domain operations, data-driven warfare, unmanned systems, and what he called ‘battlefield equalisers’ alongside traditional combat capabilities. He described the Army as entering a new era shaped by technological capability, organisational agility, and self-reliance.
This statement is significant because it signals a formal doctrinal evolution that has been building since Operation Sindoor — an Indian military operation whose details, while not fully in the public domain, is referenced in the newspaper as a landmark event from which major lessons are being drawn. The shift from reactive to proactive deterrence represents a fundamental change in how India conceptualises and plans its military responses in a security environment that includes continued tensions on the Line of Actual Control with China, cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, and rapidly evolving technological warfare dynamics demonstrated in conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East.
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Table of Contents
Background and Context
Five Important Key Points
- General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of Army Staff, explicitly cited Operation Sindoor as the experiential reference point for a new doctrinal emphasis on proactive deterrence, multi-domain operations, unmanned systems integration, and data-driven battlefield decision-making.
- The concept of ‘battlefield equalisers’, introduced by the Chief in his address, refers to asymmetric technological capabilities that can neutralise the numerical or conventional superiority of adversaries, representing India’s recognition that future warfare will be decided by intelligence, speed, and technology as much as by firepower and manpower.
- The Indian Army’s transformation agenda is anchored in the broader Aatmanirbhar Bharat framework for defence self-reliance, with the indigenisation of weapons platforms, surveillance systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles becoming operational priorities rather than aspirational goals.
- Multi-domain operations (MDO) as a doctrinal concept requires seamless integration of land, air, sea, space, and cyber capabilities under unified command and control frameworks, a challenge that requires not just technology but organisational restructuring and cultural change within the military.
- The shift to proactive deterrence signals India’s intent to move beyond the doctrine of responding to provocations and toward the development of a credible, pre-emptive threat posture that raises the cost of aggression against Indian interests to a level that adversaries will find prohibitive.
Historical Background: India’s Doctrinal Evolution
India’s military doctrine has evolved considerably since independence, shaped by the wars of 1947, 1962, 1965, 1971, and the Kargil conflict of 1999. Each conflict left doctrinal lessons that informed subsequent restructuring. The 1962 debacle with China led to significant modernisation. The 1971 victory shaped the concept of combined arms warfare. The Kargil conflict accelerated the development of precision strike capabilities and high-altitude warfare readiness.
The creation of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) position in 2019 and the concept of Integrated Theatre Commands (ITCs) were intended to address the fundamental challenge of jointness — the integration of Army, Navy, and Air Force capabilities under unified operational frameworks. While the theatrisation process has faced institutional and bureaucratic resistance, the doctrinal direction is clear: India must move toward a joint warfighting doctrine capable of operating across multiple domains simultaneously.
Operation Sindoor, referenced by the Chief of Army Staff, appears to represent a significant operational experience that has validated the direction of this transformation and provided concrete lessons for its acceleration.
Multi-Domain Warfare: The Contemporary Context
The conflicts of the 2020s — Ukraine, Gaza, and the West Asia theatre — have provided real-time demonstrations of the power of unmanned systems, electronic warfare, satellite intelligence, and artificial intelligence in battlefield decision-making. Ukraine demonstrated how a technologically agile smaller force can neutralise conventional superiority through the intelligent deployment of drones, anti-armour systems, and precision artillery guided by commercial satellite imagery. These lessons are not lost on Indian military planners.
For India, the security environment on the northern borders involves an adversary — China — that has heavily invested in multi-domain capabilities, including anti-satellite weapons, cyber offensive tools, hypersonic missiles, electronic warfare systems, and a growing drone fleet. India’s shift toward proactive deterrence and multi-domain operations is therefore not merely doctrinal aspiration but strategic necessity.
The concept of unmanned systems integration is particularly important. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), from tactical surveillance drones to combat-capable platforms like the Predator B (now being acquired under the MQ-9B deal), are transforming the intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR) landscape. The Indian Army has also been investing in loitering munitions, also called kamikaze drones, for precision strike without pilot risk.
Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Defence Indigenisation
General Dwivedi’s emphasis on self-reliance as a core value of the transformation agenda is consistent with the broader Aatmanirbhar Bharat policy in defence. India has progressively increased the share of domestic procurement in its defence budget, imposed positive indigenisation lists that ban imports of an expanding catalogue of items, and channelled resources into the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Defence Public Sector Undertakings, and private sector defence manufacturers including Tata Advanced Systems, Adani Defence, and Bharat Forge.
The Arjun Main Battle Tank, the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, the Pinaka Multiple Launch Rocket System, and the development of the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) represent milestones in this journey. However, significant capability gaps remain, particularly in aero-engines, advanced electronics, and complex sensor systems, where India continues to rely on imports.
Way Forward
The Indian Army’s doctrinal transformation must be matched by structural reforms in defence procurement to reduce the timeline between requirement identification and induction of capability from the current decade-long cycle to three to five years. The Integrated Theatre Commands framework must be operationalised through a consensus-building process that addresses the services’ concerns about command hierarchies and resource allocation. Defence research and development funding must be increased from its current approximately 5 to 6 percent of the defence budget to 10 percent or higher to enable genuine breakthrough capability development. The emerging domains of space and cyber warfare must be formalised into the jointness framework through dedicated commands and doctrines. India should also expand military diplomacy with like-minded partners in the Indo-Pacific to build the operational experience and interoperability necessary for multi-domain coalition operations.
Relevance for UPSC and SSC Examinations
UPSC: GS-III (Defence — Security Challenges, Indigenisation, Military Doctrine), GS-II (India’s Security Architecture, Institutional Reform), Essay (Technology and National Security)
SSC: General Awareness — Defence, Indian Army, Military Modernisation
Key Terms: Operation Sindoor, Multi-Domain Operations (MDO), Proactive Deterrence, Chief of Army Staff, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Battlefield Equalisers, Integrated Theatre Commands, Chief of Defence Staff, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, DRDO, Indigenisation, College of Defence Management, Data-Driven Warfare