General Bipin Rawat, chief of defence staff, today said that the situation in Afghanistan is still evolving and more trouble was expected. 

“Only time will tell what will happen in Afghanistan. Nobody expected the Taliban to take over the country so fast. There can be more turmoil,” the CDS said. This statement, one of the first by a top armed forces officer, suggests that more could happen after the recent Taliban takeover.     

 He mentioned that an increasingly aggressive China, with pakistan as its proxy, will be more involved in Afghanistan and there would be more linkages between Beijing and some Islamic countries. For that, India has to be prepared, more integrated militarily and there should be more cohesion between the military and civilian sectors.

General Rawat appeared to suggest that the Indian Air Force could do without having 40 fighter squadrons it wanted. Replying to questions, he acknowledged there were fewer squadrons but pointed out that five  S-400 air defence system squadrons were arriving, a rocket force was being developed, the MR-SAM had just come in, India had a number of missiles of different ranges and the quality of planes coming in were superior to the older fighters. And in comparison with China, India had a terrain advantage. Planes taking off from the high Tibetan plateau have to carry less in terms of loads. 

The CDS also mentioned that the Air Force had just cleared the acquisition of 83 indigenous Tejas fighters and the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft was on its way. 

The CDS spoke of the need for “jointness,” adding that apart from the eastern and western theatre commands and the maritime and air-defence commands on the anvil, there was the possibility of a joint training command and a joint logistics command. To ensure officers of the 3 services saw each other’s point, there will be joint higher command capsules.

Emphasising the use of technology, he said wars in the future would be fought differently– the conflict could begin with a cyber strike on railways and banks. Which is why the armed forces were being made more tech-savvy. Already, a tri-service cyber, special forces and space agencies have been readied. 

Replying to questions by NN Vora, former governor of Kashmir, he said that work towards getting bureaucrats more aware of how the armed forces functioned and the official histories of India’s wars would be made public in a phased manner.