The Defence Ministry has made an Artificial Intelligence (AI) roadmap for each Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), under which 61 defence specific projects have been identified for development. Out of these 61 projects, 26 have been completed by the defence PSUs - the Minister of State for Defence, Ajay Bhatt, said in a written reply to Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in the Rajya Sabha on 28 March 2022. 

Moreover, Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), on 30 March 2022, signed an MoU with the army design bureau for collaboration in the field of artificial intelligence for defence applications.

A quick background 

March 2018: The Ministry of Defence (MoD), Department of Defence Production (DDP), formed a multi-stakeholder Task Force under the chairmanship of Sh. N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons, to investigate the full range of issues surrounding strategic implications of AI in national security. 

June 2018: The Task Force submitted its report with certain recommendations.

Feb 2019: On the recommendations of the task force, the Defence AI Council (DAIC), under the Chairmanship of the Defence Minister, was created. Also, the Defence AI Project Agency (DAIPA) came into existence for providing the necessary guidance to enable and affect the development of the operating framework, policy-level changes and structural support for AI adoption. 

In addition, the tri-services are also engaged in the development of AI projects from the Startups through the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and Academia. 

Importance for AI 

A little disadvantage can cost big, especially when it comes to modern warfare, while a simple change may overturn the entire outcome. This is where 'AI-augmented defence' fits in.  

In the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine suffered a massive cyber attack in the first week of March 2022, with reports indicating the use of AI to execute the same. So come India; the country is surrounded by hostile neighbours with a history of wars fought. The geography, recent border tussles, and modern warfare's ever-changing face call for the urgent adoption of these strategic technologies. 

There is no second thought to accept, but during the Armenia-Azerbaijan war, the involvement of autonomous drones equipped with artificial intelligence with good surveillance capacity turned out to be the gamechanger. This support from the Turkish army shifted the end results completely in favour of Azerbaijan. As reported by The Week, a March 2022 video by the Pakistani Air Force gave a glimpse of their plans to purchase new armed drones from Turkey and China. 

Last year's incident, where drones dropped two bombs at the Indian Air Force base in Jammu, served as a wake-up call for India to take AI and drone threats more seriously. 

Several international players have already laid out their AI roadmap for defence. Israel unveiled the AI strategy for its defence forces in the first week of February 2022. Similarly, the Pentagon of the United States has established a Joint Artificial Intelligence Centre tasked with assisting the US military in the application of artificial intelligence. So the question needs to be asked: Can India afford to lose on this front? There is no prize in guessing that the answer to the same is surely a big NO.  

India's approach 

DRDO doing its part: For application-oriented AI research, the DRDO has two specialised laboratories: the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) in Bengaluru and the DRDO Young Scientist Laboratory (DYSL)-AI in Bengaluru. AI technology groups exist in all DRDO system Laboratories to incorporate AI features into products in development. 

Collaboration with startups: Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) was established to foster innovation and technology development in the defence and aerospace industries by engaging MSMEs, individuals, startups, and academia and helping them with funding and other support to carry out R&D activities with the potential to be introduced for future Indian defence and aerospace needs.

Take, for instance, Mumbai-based AR/VR startup Ajna Lens is helping the military to use these technologies for combat and pilot training. 

Involving private players: The defence ministry identified 18 major platforms, including unmanned autonomous AI-based land robots, naval shipborne unmanned aerial systems and lightweight tanks, for their design and development by the private sector, as reported by PTI. As a result, India has begun to shrug aside outdated military systems and invest in next-generation capabilities.  

To sum up, the combination of AI with war strategy can provide commanders with deep strategic insights and aid countries in reducing combat losses by providing highly accurate real-time prediction inputs generated from large amounts of dynamic and unstructured data. Hence, AI in defence is a win-win for India and further strengthens the armed forces' defence capabilities.