At war with the virus

The military should supplement its arsenal with dual-use assets that would create capabilities for handling situations like Covid

In just a few months, the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has upended conventional calculations about national and international security. On January 11, Army Chief General MM Naravane had listed his primary challenges as defending the Siachen Glacier, the China border, the Pakistan border and tasks related to counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, in that order.

On March 4, as Covid-19 was picking up steam, the general gazed into his crystal ball and declared that tanks and fighter aircraft would soon become irrelevant and be replaced by new-technology lasers and directed energy weapons. Today, with large sections of the army, navy and air force