The Indian Army on Thursday announced that it would incorporate niche technology to keep pace with modern warfare technologies and would soon operationalise a cyber operations wing to safeguard its networks from international hackers, and ransomware malware, among other threats.
Army chief General Manoj Pande, along with other senior officers, announced the development during the Army Commanders Conference held in New Delhi earlier this month, an Army statement reads.
With the army becoming heavily reliant on "network-based operations" which are increasingly dependent on "modern communication systems", the commanders of the force realised there was a need to secure its own networks and chose to start a "Command Cyber Operations and Support Wings" on an urgent basis.
"To augment the capabilities of the forces by absorption of Niche Technologies and equipment, it was decided to nominate Lead Directorates and 'Test Bed' Formations to evolve optimal employment philosophies and scaling to facilitate better exploitation Pan Army," the release added.
Among other decisions taken at the conference was preparing disabled soldiers for participation in Paralympic events.
"It was decided to identify and train selected motivated soldiers for Paralympic Events by training them at Army Sports and Mission Olympic Nodes in nine sporting events," the army said.
The progress of work on the under-construction army headquarters (Thal Sena Bhawan) in Delhi was also reviewed by the commanders.
Once completed in 2025, the building will not only solve the issue of office space crunch but will also bring all the departments of the army under a single roof.