Important to develop indigenous systems for ensuring secrecy: Army Chief

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday underlined the need to develop indigenous systems to bring in secrecy, which he said, is important for the security forces.

"The issue of secrecy is important for security forces. If it gets compromised then no plan can work. To bring in secrecy, it is important that we develop indigenous systems. Today we are operating on systems that can be compromised," he said in his address at 'Defcom India 2019' conference here.

"Technology is fast changing. If we do not improve procurement cycles, we will always be operating with obsolete equipment...Instead of having procurement procedures in concentric circles, we need to go into the cyclical form so that simultaneous procurement processes can happen," the Army Chief added.

Rawat highlighted that interoperability is an issue that needs to be addressed and that can only happen if all the communication networks are interlinked.

"In an era of internet, information domain has emerged as an extremely important facet of communication. It is important to augment our capabilities to maintain information security over adversaries," he said.

A joint information network with joint apps riding on it will become a force multiplier bringing in transparency and real-time dissemination of information across strategic operations and tactical domain, the Army Chief said.

Rawat said that the defence communication network has been a significant step in integrating the three services -- Army, Navy and Air Force.

"The network for spectrum is yet another project connecting the military stations amongst the three services. This will fructify very soon and bring about tri-services synergy at the desired level," he added.

In order to bring jointness among the three services, the role of communications cannot be overstated, Rawat said.

"Communication and infrastructure must be seamlessly connecting our sensors, shooters, and decision-makers who are required to make decisions at the right time in a joint manner," the Army Chief underlined.

He said that success in the modern battlefield will depend on the seamless communication of all entities in wars.

"This leads to situational awareness and a shared sense in making that allows us to collaborate with each other to deliver desired effect on the target," Rawat further said.

Concluding his speech, the Army Chief said that the conference will provide an opportunity for the industry to understand the requirements of armed forces and match the same with industry capabilities.