“Battle Ready for 21st Century”

Lt Gen AK Singh and Brig Narender Kumar

A book titled “Battle Ready for 21st Century” co-edited by Lt Gen AK Singh, Distinguished Fellow CLAWS and Brig Narender Kumar, Visiting Fellow CLAWS was released by Gen Bipin Rawat, CDS and Gen Deepak Kapoor, Former Chief of the Army Staff at Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) on March 17 2021.

The book “Battle Ready for the 21st Century” has endeavoured to postulate and define emerging areas of conflict, desired capabilities and doctrinal issues that need careful examination. The authors with hands-on experience and domain specialisation have endeavoured to define and suggest the ways and means necessary to secure India from emerging security challenges on land, air, sea, space, cyber domain and even cognitive domain. The book is dwelling on future conflicts that India may face and need to build capabilities to dissuade and prevent accidental wars. The foreword is written by former Naval Chief Admiral Arun Prakash. Former Chief of the Army Staff Gen NC Vij and Prof Gautam Sen have commented on the book for empirically identifying future security challenges and the need for building capabilities.

The book lays down the conceptual framework for the strategic management of future conflicts. The conventional land forces in Indian context still remains irreplaceable to capture, hold and deny ground to the adversaries, as a result, focus remains on land forces especially while dealing with the threat from China and Pakistan. The essays have imaginatively covered grey zone conflict, urban warfare and mountain warfare, along with dynamic military strategies to secure India.

The “Two Front” dilemma is no longer an illusion, but an ongoing reality. For too long the ISR domain has remained an Achilles heel for India, the author of this essay has identified the gaps and suggested pragmatic measures to overcome these. The important aspect of doctrinal innovation has rightly been linked to visionary leadership and aligned to professional military education. The book assumes significance in view of the restructuring of armed forces in integrated theatre commands and cross-domain operations.

The book is a must-read for members of higher defence organisation, military professionals and academicians.