Indian Army to have hi-tech communication system

Friday, 14 February 2003, 20:30 IST   |    2 Comments
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NEW DELHI: The Indian Army is setting up a hi-tech communications system that will allow the instantaneous transfer of data to fighting formations across the country. At the same time, it has launched special courses to make its soldiers IT-savvy so that they can take advantage of the latest mobile communications systems, said Lt. Gen. D.P. Sehgal, the army's Signal Officer Commanding-in-Chief. Sehgal, who heads the army's Signal Corps, the formation responsible for looking after the army's communication network, said the planned Tactical Communications System would allow top commanders to keep in touch with battalions across India. This is significant as the battalions are considered the main fighting formations both in counter-insurgency operations and in times of external aggression. Existing communications systems only allow commanders to keep in touch with brigades. "The Tactical Communications System is in the pipeline. It is being processed for sanction by the defence ministry," said Sehgal, who was speaking to reporters on the eve of the 92nd anniversary of the raising of the Signal Corps. "The emphasis today is on creating an infrastructure that provides synergy amongst the components involved in combat. Besides, cyber security has also become a major task for the Signal Corps," he said. The system, to be set up in phases, will connect all battalions to a network to facilitate voice, data, fax and video transfers in real time. Steps will also be taken to ensure that these communications cannot be intercepted. This, said army officials, will allow the fighting formations to respond much faster to any emerging threat. Sehgal said the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh was conducting special courses in cyber security, hacking and information warfare to ensure that the army's communications network could be protected from all threats. "We also have the wherewithal to find out about the enemy's networks and we are training people to hack into the enemy's networks. People are being trained for this and deployed," he said. All army training establishments were conducting courses to increase awareness about IT and computers among soldiers and non-commissioned officers. This will allow the soldiers to use the mobile communications equipment that will be part of the Tactical Communications System. Sehgal said Operation Parakram, the 10-month-long mobilisation of Indian troops along the Pakistan border last year, had allowed the Signal Corps to test its doctrines and equipment. In recent years, the Signal Corps has set up a secure telephone-based communication network and an internet-like data network for the army.
Source: IANS