Communications, Controls, and why there is a cyber-physical focus in Defense Indigenization projects

India is an IT powerhouse. When payroll programs, inventory management systems, enterprise software, database driven software is needed, there is plenty of know-how available within our country. I am confident our officers and jawans will have the best.

On the ground however, the equipment that is used by our soldiers is necessarily hardware. A soldier needs night vision goggles, eaves dropping software, navigational equipment, communication devices (voice/data), mine detectors, smart weapons, drones etc. In short, the soldier must be equipped to defend himself as well as to launch an offensive. Soldiers tend to work in teams, which could be a few men or hundreds. A lot of the hardware in a modern army uses electronics, and embedded computers or other digital processing systems. This is very different from the IT hardware/software.

In the earlier days, a computer meant a machine that had a screen, a keyboard, and a free-standing CPU or a laptop. When Nokia made a mobile phone, it was not a computer, it was a phone. Today, the difference is not so obvious. A phone is now an app, just like other apps such as youtube or whatsapp or google maps.

What makes hardware cutting edge is software; in other words, intelligence that is built into the hardware. This combination makes for a cyber-physical focus in defense indigenization projects.

Digitalization, information technology, and Internet of Things (IoT) are terms that are commonly being used today to denote the sophisticated electronics, control systems, communication devices, and security capabilities that constitute the heart of innovation in defense technology.

The message is simple. Modern defense equipment are “smart”. What ever be the end use, it is likely that some kind of an embedded computer, or a digital processing system is what makes the equipment smart. Be it a fighter aircraft that can return to base safely if the pilot loses consciousness, or a missile that can lock on to a target and destroy it, or an autonomous drone, all such smart machines / equipment must necessarily encapsulate a computing platform with suitable software.