India needs to have tech, weapons to fight a swift as well as a long war: CDS

General Chauhan said that being self-reliant is one of the key lessons that India can derive from the Russia-Ukraine war and it has to be seen what kind of capability India needs to build based on other lessons thrown up by the war.

“Should it be for a short intense war or a long haul, because both require different sets of technology and weapon sets,” he said, adding that high-precision weapons are needed for long-range strikes in a short war, but for wars lasting longer, a large number conventional weapons, including stocks of artillery ammunition and tank ammunition, are required to keep up the country’s warfighting stamina. He said India’s peculiar security challenges entail that the military should possess a healthy mix of both.

He said India has taken baby steps towards self-reliance and the defence services will be the driving force in making the government’s initiatives towards this goal successful.

Stating that he would look at the conflict from the point of view of a military practitioner, General Chauhan said there are no universally acceptable lessons from the war. He said it is a different kind of war and has created contradictions. While earlier it was assumed that future wars would be short, swift and fast, the Russia-Ukraine war has turned out to be a longish war, he said.

He said earlier there were the concepts of dispersions and demassification, but what has come to the fore in the Russia-Ukraine war are concentrated attacks.

“If we look at what is happening, their frontlines are hardly moving. Even a 3 km advance is claimed as success by the Russians…,” he said, adding that there was non-linearity and targets in depth could be attacked from the front, middle and rear areas.

“Now we got stuck into a kind of warfare, which is reminiscent of the first world war — trench warfare — that is what we have stagnated into,” he said, referring to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Both General Campbell and General Mattis sought to criticise Russia’s actions against Ukraine in the ongoing war.

Calling Russia’s actions “illegal, unjust and outrageous”, General Campbell said Russia’s invasion into Ukraine is a violation of sovereign territory and integrity of a nation.

He said Russian forces are waging the war in a “deeply unethical and immoral fashion” and it is a travesty of everything a professional military should aspire to do, adding that the war also shows the unity of Ukrainian nationals under an extraordinary leadership with a will determined to resist.

He said he is impressed by a wide coalition of nations that has come forward to support Ukraine and denied that it was a NATO versus Russia war.

“This is a Ukraine defence of Ukraine, and yes members of NATO and members of the wide international community such as Australia and others from Indo Pacific seeking to assist Ukraine and their capability to resist and defend,” he said.

“This is an unprovoked attack on an independent sovereign nation by a brutal regime.”

Gen Mattis said it is the “human factor” that threw the Russians back initially, even as the western countries continued to support Ukraine with aid.

“The western alliance is giving a democracy the opportunity to defend itself. We are not taking the war on ourselves, but the human factor remains dominant even as new technology comes in.

On a question on Chinese intervention in the war, he said the US is prepared in the event of a conflict with China.

He said the whole point is deterrence and one of the reasons the US wants to be adamant about its support to Ukraine, is because Russia’s success at violating the sovereignty of Ukraine would encourage China to move against India on the Line of Actual Control or in the South China sea against Vietnam, Philippines or against the people of Taiwan.

He said standing by Ukraine is essential to give out the message that dictators can’t be successful in this sort of offensive operation.

Talking about various disinformation tactics which have come to the fore in the Russia-Ukraine war, General Chauhan said combatants should stay focused on kinetic options, while the narrative will be built around it.