Former Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh Urges Armed Forces to Adapt for Digital Warfare
Pune, November 10, 2026: Former Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh (Retd) has called for India’s Armed Forces to adapt their structures and capabilities to a rapidly changing digital battlefield. Delivering a guest lecture at the Military Institute of Technology (MILIT), Pune, he discussed how emerging technologies are reshaping warfare, operational planning and military decision-making.
Titled “Navigating the Evolving Digital Landscape in Defence – Leadership Perspectives”, the lecture was attended by officers of the 9th Defence Services Technical Staff Course (DSTSC-09) and participants in other ongoing courses at MILIT.
Admiral Singh described the shift from the industrial age to the digital era, where the accelerating pace of commercial technological innovation is changing how military operations are planned and conducted. He said the effects extend from strategic planning to decisions made on the battlefield.
Drawing on ongoing conflicts around the world, he pointed to drones, surveillance satellites and distributed surveillance networks as technologies changing the character of asymmetric warfare. Affordable, adaptable and interconnected systems, he said, can enable technologically equipped forces to challenge advantages traditionally held by conventional military forces.
These developments, Admiral Singh argued, make it necessary to reconsider traditional military force structures. He highlighted Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T), which brings together human-operated platforms and autonomous or remotely controlled systems to improve operational effectiveness and battlefield awareness.
He also discussed network-centric warfare and next-generation combat kill-web capabilities. In these approaches, sensors, decision-makers and weapons systems are linked so that information can be shared more quickly, situational awareness improved and military responses coordinated.
Another focus was the move away from defence acquisition centred primarily on hardware towards capabilities driven by software. Admiral Singh said modern defence systems increasingly rely on adaptable software architectures, ongoing technological upgrades and the capacity to respond quickly to emerging threats.
He called for more agile acquisition processes that would allow military organisations to introduce technological improvements without being held back by lengthy procurement and development cycles. The perspectives presented at the lecture also emphasised that adaptable software and the ability to modify systems rapidly will be essential to maintaining operational superiority in a technology-driven security environment.
The interaction gave officers undertaking professional military education at MILIT an opportunity to consider how warfare is changing and the leadership challenges involved in integrating emerging technologies into military operations. It also addressed the need for technological adaptability and innovation as the Armed Forces prepare for future conflicts involving artificial intelligence, autonomous platforms, interconnected sensors and rapidly evolving digital capabilities.
