“Multi-domain operations is about creating effects faster than adversary can comprehend”: CDS Raja Subramani

New Delhi [India], September 30 (ANI): Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General NS Raja Subramani on Tuesday emphasised the need for a shift from individual platforms and capabilities towards a “system-of-systems."
Addressing the Defence Forum on Model-Based Acquisition, CDS Raja Subramani said future operations would depend on integrating capabilities across various domains.
"I would like to start with one central proposition. That is, multi-domain operations are not about operating in different domains. It is about creating effects using various domains in a particular domain faster than the adversary can comprehend and respond to us. Operate faster in various domains than the adversary can respond and create problems for them. Today, it is not about individual platforms, individual services, individual capabilities. It is about a system-of-systems approach. While a satellite can detect, some sensors can view it. From another domain, you can target it and create the necessary effects that you desire. For all of this, adequate networking, data, and the ability to sustain it during operations are imperative," he said. 
Elaborating on the need for an effects-based approach in defence planning, the CDS said the focus should be on the capabilities required to achieve battlefield objectives rather than on individual service-specific requirements.
He further said, "Let me start with the first point, which is moving from platforms to effects. This aspect I have made again and again, and I wish to reiterate it. It is not about what the Army needs, what the Navy needs, what the Air Force needs. It is about what are the effects that we need to create on the battlefield, and for those effects, what are the capabilities we require. When we talk about multi-domain operations, we can start first from C4ISR, where you require space-based capabilities, whether it be in ISR, whether it be in PNT, whether it be in communications, or whether it be in LNT, to detect the adversary in real time. And then once we have detected, we need to act upon it as fast as possible. Only having space-based assets is not enough. These space-based assets now have to communicate with aerial assets, naval assets, ground assets, and electronic warfare assets. All assets have to communicate in near real time and be able to share the data..." (ANI)