 "India's Military Makeover: Lessons from Ukraine and a Watchful Eye on Neighbors")
India isn't messing around. With tensions high on both our borders with China and Pakistan, we're studying the Ukraine war like a textbook to figure out the best way to defend ourselves. The big takeaways? We need loads of artillery, a sky full of drones, and top-notch cyberwarfare skills.
But let's be clear, India's got its own unique challenges. We've got two major rivals – Pakistan to the west and an increasingly assertive China in the northwest. Unlike the relatively flat battleground in Ukraine, our forces might end up fighting in scorching deserts, dense jungles, or the world's tallest mountains.
Right now, our military is a bit of a hodgepodge. Around 1.5 million soldiers armed with gear from all over the world, plus some of our own designs. Russia used to be our main arms dealer, but lately, we've been shopping from the West – think American howitzers, French fighter jets, and Israeli drones.
One thing Ukraine makes clear, according to Indian experts, is the power of artillery. Consider this: our army has thousands of guns from Russia, America, Sweden, South Korea, and more. Watching Russia pound Ukraine with thousands of shells daily drives home the point. Ukrainians are bravely returning fire, but their limited supply has forced them to dig in, leading to brutal trench warfare.
"Looking at the demonstration of artillery fire in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, two lessons are available to the Indian Army," wrote Amrita Jash, an assistant professor at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, in a report for the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank. "First, that firepower can be a 'battle-winning factor,' and second, that the time between acquiring the target to shooting has drastically reduced: where it once took five to 10 minutes, it now takes only a minute or two."
India's taking notes. We've got plans to modernize, with bigger, NATO-standard guns and rockets that can hit targets further away.
The air war over Ukraine has been a head-scratcher. Russia has the clear advantage in planes and tech, yet missiles have kept both sides from ruling the skies. Russian jets are mainly firing long-range missiles at Ukrainian cities rather than helping their ground forces. Drones are the true stars! Both countries are using (and losing!) them by the bucketload.
This has implications for India, according to Arjun Subramaniam, a retired Indian Air Force air vice marshal who helped write the ORF report. India needs to prepare for "gaining control of the air in limited time and space conditions in a short, high-intensity limited conflict as well as in a longer, protracted conflict." He emphasizes that our air force needs to be in lockstep with our army and navy. India should also focus on taking down enemy air defenses, "particularly against an adversary that is more interested in denying rather than controlling the airspace."
Naturally, Subramaniam wants India to ramp up drone development. But he's also worried about India getting hit by a drone swarm. "Of greater importance is the need to rapidly develop counter-drone capabilities that would be essential in responding to large-scale surprise attacks and retain effective second-strike capabilities," he wrote.
And let's not forget cyberwarfare. Ukraine shows how this plays out from attacks on the military and power grids to sneaky propaganda and deepfakes making their way onto social media. Shimona Mohan, an ORF researcher, highlights "the increasing role of largely civilian organizations like big tech in conflict situations and the deepening interplay of civil-military partnerships around dual-use technologies like AI."
Her advice? India needs to beef up its cyber skills. If not, Mohan says, we should at least make sure our allies are tech powerhouses – a clear nod to countries like the US who have been big supporters of Ukraine.
The bottom line: India is paying close attention to Ukraine as we revamp our military. We're facing our own unique threats and need a fighting force ready for anything.
