‘Indian Armed Forces To Embrace 5G Technology To Bring AI, Unmanned Vehicles To Centre Stage’: Defence Secretary

In a boost for the Indian Armed Forces, the Defence Ministry on Friday (16 April) said that the forces will migrate to 5G network considering the use of unmanned vehicles and artificial intelligence (AI) in the future. The ministry will also be taking necessary steps to take forward the 5G connectivity with the relevant use case circumstances, reports Economic Times.

Ajay Kumar, Secretary Ministry of Defence, stated that though the Indian forces are keen to leverage futuristic technologies, 5G in India is presently at a nascent stage and that no commercial deployment has taken place in the country so far.

Kumar's assertion in support of 5G connectivity and technologies for defence forces gains significance given United States (US) and China are also betting big in the area.

In October last year, the US Department of Defence had announced that it would spend $600 million for 5G experiments and testing at a few military sites in response to China's increased efforts to make 5G a reality in many defence applications following investments in AI, quantum computing and under-sea cables.

Experts opine that the shift to 5G expertise and synthetic intelligence would enable completely different use case scenarios, and would ultimately increase defence capabilities to pre-empt the enemy.

Meanwhile, it should also be noted that as per Kumar, the Ministry is also in the final process of creating a robust Network for Spectrum (NFS) infrastructure consisting of fibre-based cable deployed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for armed forces. The NFS programme had been conceptualised in 2012.