CDS Raja Subramani Warns That Modern Warfare Has Erased the Front-Rear Divide

At the News18 Defcon 2026 conference, Chief of Defence Staff General NS Raja Subramani outlined a new strategic outlook for India’s defence forces. He argued that the traditional distinction between forward and rear battle zones is disappearing, that the interval between detecting a threat and engaging it is collapsing, and that future conflicts will unfold simultaneously across continental, maritime, space, cyber and information domains. To address these shifts, he presented a five-element “BUILD” framework covering Battlefield, Economics, Integration, Learning and Delivery at scale.

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Subramani cited the Russia-Ukraine war as an example of how modern conflicts can involve the entire national territory, with logistics nodes, headquarters, airfields and communication infrastructure all vulnerable to attack. He also referenced recent wars in West Asia, noting how low-cost drones and other asymmetric tools have allowed less-resourced nations to impose significant costs on better-equipped adversaries.

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• Erosion of the rear area: distance from the front line no longer guarantees protection, because sensors, algorithms and networks can detect and transmit threats instantly.

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• Technology as an equaliser: the widespread availability of weapons and digital tools enables non-state actors to conduct effective asymmetric operations.

Citing example of UPI, CDS Subramani calls for building robust networks for military

• BUILD framework:

Character of war is changing rapidly; whole nation goes to war now, not just soldiers: CDS Subramani

• B – Battlefield: shift to depth-focused, networked combat.

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• U – Economics: cost-effective solutions, questioning the assumption that sophisticated systems must be expensive.

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• I – Integration: decisive capability resides in the “network, data, software, algorithms” linking platforms.

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• D – Delivery: rapid, scalable production lines capable of moving from tens to thousands of systems as strategic needs dictate.

Character of war is changing rapidly; whole nation goes to war now, not just soldiers: CDS Subramani

• Software primacy: “software is the king” and future battlefield success will depend on interoperable networks, data flows and algorithmic decision-making, drawing a parallel to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a model for large-scale, secure data systems.

Citing example of UPI, CDS Subramani calls for building robust networks for military

• “We face a continental security challenge, a maritime security challenge and an increasingly contested space, cyber and electromagnetic environment. We therefore cannot afford to prepare for one kind of conflict at a time,” — Raja Subramani

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• “Today software is the king - future battlefield winning capability will increasingly depend upon the networks, data, software and algorithms...Just like we built UPI, we now need to build similar equivalents for the military on scale,” — Raja Subramani

Citing example of UPI, CDS Subramani calls for building robust networks for military

Subramani’s articulation of a “simultaneous, connected and contested” battlefield signals a strategic pivot for India’s defence policy. By framing technology, data and rapid learning as core warfighting enablers, the CDS urges the armed forces, industry, academia and startups to co-develop interoperable platforms and to build production capacity that can surge in response to emerging threats. The emphasis on “delivery at scale” directly addresses capability gaps in long-range precision weapons, underwater systems and engine technology, suggesting a shift from prototype-centric development to mass-production pipelines.

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