In grey-zone era, cyber attacks serve politico-military aims: Rajnath Singh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that in the era of "grey zone" and hybrid warfare, cyber attacks and disinformation campaign are tools to achieve politico-military aims.

The ongoing conflicts and contemporary trends highlight the fact that traditional notions of warfare are being rewritten, he said in his address at the convocation ceremony of Defence Service Staff College (DSSC) here.

"The ongoing conflicts and contemporary trends highlight the fact that the traditional notions of warfare are being rewritten. Emerging technologies are impacting the character of war with unmanned systems, and advent of AI forecasting, an era of Autonomous Warfare. The Warfare today has gone beyond the traditional battlefields of land, sea and air," he said.

The Armed forces will increasingly need to operate jointly in a multi-domain environment where cyber, space and information warfare will be as potent as conventional operations.

"We are in the age of Grey Zone and Hybrid warfare where cyber-attacks, disinformation campaigns and economic warfare have become tools that can prosecute and achieve politico-military aims without a single shot being fired," the Defence minister said.

India and for that matter the world, faces a diverse range of security challenges.

"In our case, we face persistent threats along our northern and western borders. This is further compounded by the threat of proxy war and terrorism emanating from the epicenter of terrorism in our neighborhood," he added.