Leverage AI for military applications

India is now finally taking some steps towards ensuring effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) in fighting conflicts, which is fast becoming a critical operational necessity that may well decide the outcome of wars in the future. DRDO is increasingly focusing on AI to enable faster decision-making and shortening the sensor-to shooter loop, AI-powered surveillance and weapon systems.

India finally taking some steps to leverage AI for military applications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies hold great promise for facilitating military decisions, minimising human causalities and enhancing the combat potential of forces. This article focuses on development and fielding of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) against the backdrop of rapid advances in the field of AI, and its relevance to the Indian security scenario. It gives a broad overview of the possible military applications of this technology and brings out the main legal and ethical issues involved in the current ongoing debate on development of LAWS. Further, international as well as Indian perspectives are given out on the development and deployment of LAWS. It reviews the status of AI technology in India, assesses the current capability of the Indian Army (IA) to adapt to this technology, and suggest steps which need to be taken on priority to ensure that Indian defence forces keep pace with other advanced armies in the race to usher in a new AI-triggered Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA).

How it works

• Defence Artificial Intelligence Council (DAIC) led by the defence minister to provide overall guidance and support.
• “25 defence-specific AI products” will be developed by 2024.
• A Defence AI Project Agency (DAIPA) has also been created under the secretary (defence production), with Rs 100 crore earmarked annually for AI-enabled projects.
• The Navy has 30 ongoing AI projects encompassing autonomous systems, maritime domain awareness, perimeter security, decision-making, predictive inventory maintenance and management.
• Apart from setting up an “AI core group”, the Navy is also creating an AI centre of excellence at INS Valsura in Jamnagar, which already has a modern lab on AI and Big Data analysis.
• Application-oriented research in AI is also being conducted at two dedicated DRDO labs, Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) and DRDO Young Scientist Laboratory (DYSL)-AI, both at Bengaluru.
• All DRDO system labs have started AI technology groups to introduce AI features in all products.