Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday warned that India's security landscape had become increasingly complex, with warfare extending far beyond conventional cross-border firing to include cyberattacks, drone swarms, proxy wars and information operations.
He was speaking to Indian Air Force personnel at Bagdogra airfield in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, where he had arrived on the eve of Diwali to spend time with troops stationed in a region of considerable strategic importance.
Singh's visit carried the customary warmth of a festival-eve meeting between a defence minister and the armed forces, but his message was unsparing about the nature of the threats the country now faces. Addressing the personnel gathered at the airbase, he said adversaries were increasingly seeking to exploit vulnerabilities without engaging in direct conflict, and that the armed forces had to be prepared for a form of contest that plays out across many domains at once.
"Warfare is no longer limited merely to cross-border firing. It has expanded greatly to encompass asymmetric warfare, proxy wars, cyberattacks, drone swarms, information operations, and narrative management," Singh said. The remark summed up a theme that has run through India's defence thinking in recent years: that the battlefield of the future will not be confined to a line on a map, and that victory may depend as much on control of networks and narratives as on firepower.
He cautioned that the enemy often avoids direct confrontation and instead tries to exploit weaknesses wherever they can be found. Through social media, he said, adversaries attempt to sow seeds of doubt among local populations and soldiers by spreading misleading information.
The warning reflected a growing concern within the security establishment about the use of disinformation as a weapon, and about the speed with which false claims can circulate and take hold in an age of instant communication.
"In such a scenario, your role is no longer that of an ordinary soldier. You are required to simultaneously maintain domain awareness, cyber resilience, and information integrity," Singh told the personnel.
The three qualities he named capture the breadth of the modern soldier's task: to understand what is happening across land, air, sea, space and cyberspace; to keep systems and communications secure against attack; and to ensure that the information reaching troops and the public can be trusted.
Singh also reviewed the operational preparedness of the Trishakti Corps at Sukna, near the airbase in Darjeeling district. He was briefed on infrastructure development along the Line of Actual Control and on the deployment of advanced military equipment and emerging technologies intended to enhance operational capabilities and combat effectiveness, according to an official release.
The briefing underlined the continuing focus on the northern frontier, where India has been strengthening roads, habitats and surveillance infrastructure in the years since the border standoff with China.
Describing Bagdogra as a strategically important region and a crucial link in India's security framework, particularly for the North-Eastern region, Singh commended the courage and dedication of the defence forces personnel towards safeguarding national interests. The airbase sits close to the narrow Siliguri corridor, often called the Chicken's Neck, the strip of land that connects the north-eastern states to the rest of India.
Its location makes it one of the most sensitive military positions in the country, and a natural setting for a message about readiness.
The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, was present during the visit, along with senior officers of the Air Force and the Army formation based in the area. The presence of the service chief added weight to the occasion and to the minister's emphasis on jointness, the idea that the Army, Navy and Air Force must operate as a single integrated force rather than as separate services.
Singh's remarks come at a time when the character of conflict around the world is visibly changing. Recent wars and confrontations have shown how unmanned aerial vehicles can be used in large numbers to overwhelm air defences, how cyberattacks can disrupt power grids and communications, and how information campaigns can shape public opinion far from any front line.
India's own experience in recent years, including the confrontation with Pakistan earlier this year, has reinforced the lesson that modern conflict is fought simultaneously in the physical and the digital worlds.
The emphasis on drones is particularly significant. Small, inexpensive unmanned aircraft have transformed the economics of warfare, allowing even modestly resourced adversaries to threaten expensive platforms and installations. India has been investing in counter-drone systems, in its own drone manufacturing capacity and in the integration of unmanned systems into its armed forces.
The minister's reference to drone swarms, in which large numbers of drones operate together, pointed to a threat that requires entirely new forms of defence, from electronic jamming to directed energy weapons.
Cyber resilience, another theme of the address, has become a central concern for militaries everywhere. Armed forces now depend on networks for everything from logistics to command and control, and those networks present a target that can be attacked without a shot being fired. Building the capacity to detect intrusions, to keep systems running under attack and to recover quickly has become as important as maintaining traditional combat readiness.
The minister also touched on the human dimension of the new security environment. Soldiers today, he suggested, must be alert not only to physical threats but to attempts to undermine their morale and their trust in the information they receive. In a world where a fabricated video or a false report can circulate within minutes, the ability to distinguish reliable information from manipulation has become a military skill in its own right.
The visit to Bagdogra followed the established pattern of senior leaders spending Diwali with the armed forces, a tradition that underlines the bond between the country's political leadership and its soldiers. For the personnel at the airbase, the minister's presence on the eve of the festival was itself a gesture of recognition.
His message, however, looked beyond the festival, to a security environment in which the challenges are multiplying and the old certainties about how wars are fought no longer hold.
As Singh left the airbase, the message he carried was clear: the country's defences must be ready for threats that arrive not only across a border but through a network, a swarm of drones or a stream of false information. The task of the armed forces, he suggested, is no longer only to guard territory but to guard the many domains in which the nation's security is now contested.
(Reporting based on The New Indian Express and NDTV.)