Employment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Tactical Level – Brig Pawan Bhardwaj, YSM

Future battlefields will seek employment of AI and it has potential to decouple traditional combat ratios. It has wide military applications, provided the tactician and the technology managers come together and create workable tools for the future. The officer believes future battlefields are predictable and hence the demands for AI tools should also be well thought, graduated and specific in nature, very different from the AI development elsewhere in the world. Though restricted to tactical level in the context of the Indian Army, the research will include immediate correlation with counter-terrorist and counter-infiltration operations. It will also reflect upon some sharing possibilities with the sister services. It will conduct mini case studies of militarily excitable countries only viz USA, Russia, UK, Australia, China, Turkey, France, and Germany. Availability of AI to Non State Actors will also be studied. The understanding of technology curve and synergy between the user and developer will build intra organisational confidence and improve delivery of correct and viable AI tools. The research also intends to assist military to realign its training objectives and operational concepts. Though there is sufficient literature on both AI and Military AI, the tacticians avoid reading highly technical ones and technology managers dodge typically military ones. This research aims to bridge the gap between tacticians, desires and technology managers; capabilities to permit immersive development and successful AI utilisation. With an attempt to delineate the actuality from fiction, and intends to become a guidebook for the entire ecosystem.