First-ever future warfare course to begin on Sep 23: CDS General Chauhan

Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan has said a first-ever future warfare course, which will be attended by the officers of different ranks, is slated to start on September 23. In an interaction session at the Bharat Shakti Defence Conclave here on Thursday, he also spoke of the broader contours of the planned joint theatre commands envisioned by the government.

He was asked about the takeaways from a recent conference of commanders from the three Services.

"We also discussed how warfare is evolving and what we need to do about it, and that I think is a important. In that we discussed something like a future warfare course, which is going to start after four days, on 23rd (September), the first-ever course, which we are curating it," the Chief of Defence Staff said.


It's slightly different from a regular course, where the officers of similar rank attend a course, he said.

"This is rank-agnostic, and you will see officers from the rank of a Major to a Major General attending this particular course. So, it's breaking barrier. It's something new that we are trying to do," he added.

So, a major general may probably learn something from a major and a major can learn strategy and operations from a major general, he said.

It's inaugural course and maybe it will "mature in future", the CDS said.

"When we are looking at future warfare, we are not looking at how advance militaries are going to fight in future and then try to copy them," General Chauhan said.

"We are going to say, how we are going to fight in future and how we will lay the roadmap. So, it's a different concept," he added.