The role of the Indian Navy in modern geopolitics will be more challenging than ever in the forthcoming years. The seminar "Swavlamban", chaired by PM Modi on SPRINT Challenges on July 18th 2022, showcased the seriousness of New Delhi towards strengthening the Indian Navy through the model indigenous technologies. 

The fact that the Indian Ocean may witness the advanced warships and submarines from global powers is demanding India to adopt modern cutting-edge naval technologies to protect the country's interest and control the foreign powers. In modern warfare, the naval forces face hybrid warfare and simultaneously convert the war from human-centric to technology-centric.  

To improve the war capabilities of the Indian Navy with the resilient indigenous technological ecosystem, INIP (Indian Naval Indigenization Plan) 2015-2030 is formulated to upgrade to high-end technologies. The 'intelligent warfare' is demanding a revolution in military technologies and their appropriate deployment. 

The AI roadmap 

On January 2022, a workshop on 'Leveraging AI for Indian Navy was organized by INS Valsura to identify the opportunities of advanced AI technologies for the Indian Navy. Intelligent technologies are redefining naval warfare and enabling global powers to mutate and refresh their strategic trends.  

The application of AI in war is extensive, and it addresses the challenges on the battlefield with more accuracy, flexibility and an insightful approach. Fabricating the AI mesh for naval combat is a constant theme for the global naval powers, and India is also mapping toward this path.  

Presently, AI is encapsulated for several naval applications or technologies by most of the global powers and their competitors. AI systems are smarter than operator-based systems with quick-react capabilities. As a result, systems could easily analyze and manage high-volume data with exponential growth. Moreover, the system has enormous capability to add on new innovative technologies.  

The sharp digitization of naval forces could change the concept of hybrid war by the machine speed and collective use of weapon systems handled by AI. The next-generation warfare is based on Autonomous-weapon-system. Therefore, it has required sophisticated AI infrastructure to deliver complex functions such as assessment of the situation, decision making and control without human involvement.  

AI is beginning to fully leverage the Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) and improve the capability of routine duty and resource management. Escalating the mobility of naval combat operations and enhancing situational control capabilities are other critical areas to focus on where the AI needs greater flow.

Transforming with AI 

The world's change in the entire dynamics is assured with AI rewriting the art of war. This transformation is gradually converting the naval powers to AI-Naval-Powers. The steps of the AI transformation tool kit are the deployment of in-hour pilot projects to achieve acceleration and the creation of in-house active AI teams with AI capabilities. 

AI transformation needs to fabricate the complete alignment between innovative AI products for strategic value. AI tools will change the entire dynamics of the strategic collision globally with competitive metrics. 

Mentioned following are some of the areas in which AI will be applied in the Indian Navy: 

• Information and network infrastructure 
• Sensor technologies 
• Automation system 
• Augmented intelligence 
• Material design 
• Power system 
• Propulsion system 
• Environmental technologies 
• Modelling and simulation 
• Logistics 
• Prototype modelling 
• Resource planning 
• Fabrication of dynamic mission planning 
• Cognitive process modelling 
• Oceanography and weather modelling 

In the long run, the organized AI seeds prepared by the AI-tool kit could enhance the strategic intelligence and make the organization more AI friendly with good intensity of AI adaptation rate. 

Source:

Financial Express