The ongoing revolution in military affairs (RMA), characterised by the rapid changes in information and communication technologies, is bringing about dynamic changes in the nature of warfare itself. As trends indicate, future wars would seek to exploit these technologies even further. The key factor in dominating the future battlefield, C3I (command, control, communications and intelligence) has now become C4I2SR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, interoperability, surveillance and reconnaissance). To achieve C4I2SR capabilities, navies across the world are shifting from platform-centric to network-centric models by networking all afloat, airborne and shore-based assets. Given the dispersion of naval units and their increasing mobility, networking them can prove a daunting task.

The Indian Navy has commenced the networking of its 350 units (comprising ships, shore establishments and support bases) in an overall ambit of a Navy Enterprise Wide Network (NEWN). The NEWN would conjoin the LANs (Local Area Networks) within establishments and MANs (Metropolitan Area Networks) within metropolises, ensuring seamless connectivity for the entire navy. A few tactical information-based systems that are underway include Project Sanchar which links all communication centres and Project ODOC which networks the various maritime operation centres to the War Room at New Delhi. In a major move, the navy has successfully implemented a number of support systems which include ILMS (Integrated Logistic Management System) and WMS (Works Management System). Such systems have made possible greater efficiency by integrating the functions of material organisations with ships, shore establishments, naval dockyards and naval headquarters.

The navy is also using Management Information Systems (MIS) for online disbursement of pay and allowances for its personnel. In another example of effective utilisation of IT, the naval dockyards have enhanced their proficiency in monitoring refits/repairs, forecasting, production and cost budgeting by using an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) model.

The navy has lived up to its motto of `self-reliance through indigenisation'. For most of its applications, it has relied heavily on its in-house capability in systems engineering and software development. However, for major ventures it has tapped the resources of the highly talented Indian IT industry.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for its part had taken an initiative to foster a long term navy-industry partnership which laid the grounds for a joint working and co-development of naval systems and application. The integration of the LANs with the NEWN, providing a security overlay for the naval information infrastructure and development of IT-enabled products like simulators and air station management systems, are a few of the key areas where active industry participation has been sought.

Some of the ongoing works have led to strategic alliances with leading companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which benefits the navy immensely in terms of technology transfer as well as resource sharing among personnel.

Seen in a national perspective the role of the armed forces becomes all the more important, especially when the IT task force has charted a road map to make India an IT superpower by 2008. A crucial aspect is the setting up of a National Information Infrastructure (NII) which would serve as an information backbone to the country. Encompassing the NII would be the Local Information Infrastructure (LII), the Government National Information Infrastructure (GNII), the Corporate Information Infrastructure (CII) and the Private Information Infrastructure (PII).

As per reports of the IT task force, a sizeable part of the NII is expected to be in place during the first decade of this century. While the NII would be a tremendous asset to the nation, it would also make us vulnerable to disruptive hacker attacks. Addressing this concern, the navy's doctrine includes, among other measures, setting up of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to counter such threats.

Information security is a vital area where the navy is pooling its resources with industry and academia for developing solutions, which include firewalls, intrusion detection devices and cryptographic algorithms. In fact encryption technology, is an area where the navy has displayed its prowess by developing `Trinetra' - a secure cryptographic system that is at par with the latest technology used by western nations.

Notwithstanding the leapfrogging strides in technology, the human interface will always be crucial to the navy. The human element is the most important link to a networked navy with state of the art information systems. The IT policy unveiled by the navy in 1998 had envisaged that all its units would be networked by 2003, and that all its officers and sailors would be computer literate by 2002. Towards this, computer courses of varying levels have been introduced at navy's premier training establishments. The availability of a rich reservoir of engineer officers with M-Tech qualifications and sailors (Engineer Artificers) has further encouraged IT education.

However, training and re-training in the form of refresher capsules will become the order of the day as networks and information systems get more sophisticated in the future. Finally, IT will only be a force multiplier to the navy. As best brought out by Professor A J Paulraj (ex Commodore in the Indian Navy) of Stanford University, "IT alone does not win wars...our values of integrity, courage and commitment remain fundamental everywhere and at all times".

Mr Bakshi is a research fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses