Lessons and Inferences from the Characteristics of Recent Wars

Edited by: Gautam Banerjee

During the preceding decade, the application of regular as well as irregular military power to secure the ends of political goals has expanded beyond its classical moulds. Thus, we find that the contemporary military operations are less constrained by the hoary ‘rules of warfare’ – targeting of the civilians and deliberate destruction of infrastructure are some examples. On the other hand, leaping advancements in military technologies have enabled the militaries to do what had been unthinkable so far.

Destined to be a globally reckonable power while fixated at the crosshairs of two powerful and compulsively belligerent neighbours, India has to take due cognisance of the lessons that emerge from that situation.

In this book, eminent professionals have analysed the implications of the recent trends of warfare and the possible manners of gearing up to deal with these.

Edited by: Gautam Banerjee

Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee, PVSM, AVSM, YSM (Retd.) is a former Chief of Staff, the Central Army Command and Commandant Officers’ Training Academy, Chennai. Author of over a dozen books and nearly a hundred papers on military matters, the General is a senior fellow-editor at the Vivekenanda International Foundation, New Delhi.

Contents

Foreword

Editor’s Note

About the Contributors

PART-I

Strategic and Tactical Inferences from Recent Wars

1. Inferences from the Russia-Ukraine War
A.K. Chawla

2. Unlearning and Learning: Observations from Recent Wars
Rahul K. Bhonsle

3. Characteristics of Recent Wars: Trends and Inferences
Gautam Banerjee

4. Changing Trends in Warfare
Prakash Katoch

5. Contemporary Wars: Recent Trends
Rajesh Kumar

6. Air Power: Strategic Inferences for India
Diptendu Choudhury

7. Complementary Inferences from the Recent Trends in Warfare
Diptendu Choudhury

8. The Russo-Ukraine War: Inferences on Air Combat and Air Defence Aspects
V.K. Saxena

9. Inferences from Recent Conflicts and Implications for the Indian Military
A.K. Chaturvedi

10. Emerging Technologies in Recent Conflicts and Implications for India
P.K. Mallick and Gautam Banerjee

11. Role of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) in the Ukraine War
P.K. Mallick

12. New-Era Trajectories of Conflict Management
Gautam Banerjee

PART-II

Emerging Military Technologies in Recent Conflicts and Implications for India

13. Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UASs), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and Drones
14. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
15. Cyber Warfare
16. Information Warfare (IW)
17. Electronic Warfare (EW)
18. Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR)
19. Mechanised Forces in Recent Wars
Index