Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday said land forces are the most crucial in any war and stressed that in India’s case, control over land will decide victory.
At an event, he cited last month’s summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on the Ukraine conflict to underline his point.
“When you go back to the Alaska conference that took place between the two presidents, they just discussed how much land has to exchange hands,” he said.
“In India, since we have two-and-half-front threats, land will remain the currency of victory,” the Army Chief reiterated.
His comments come two weeks after Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said Operation Sindoor had reaffirmed the “primacy” of air power.
Gen Dwivedi also spoke about the changing nature of warfare and the Indian Army’s efforts to induct emerging technologies as part of transformative reforms.
Earlier on Friday at a book launch event, he had also explained why theatreisation was “necessary.”
“When we fight a battle, an Army doesn’t fight alone. We have Border Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police. Then there are the tri-services, defence cyber agencies, defence space agencies, and now we are talking about cognitive warfare agencies. Besides, there are agencies such as the ISRO, Civil Defence, Civil Aviation, Railways, NCC, state and Central administrations…
“If one has to deal with so many agencies, theaterisation is the answer. Because unity of command is more important. You need one commander to achieve coordination in execution. Theaterisation is absolutely necessary,” he had asserted.
