Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi on Wednesday (November 12, 2025) said the Army’s transformation is anchored in Industry 5.0, a human-centric shift where technology enhances soldiers’ judgement, speed and survivability rather than substituting them.
Speaking at the Delhi Defence Dialogue organised by MP-IDSA in New Delhi, he framed the next phase of modernisation as a balance between cutting-edge tools and the people who wield them.
“Technology is not here to replace humans but to support them. Our comparative advantage is our people, and Industry 5.0 does scale that advantage into faster decisions and tighter signatures,” he said, underscoring human-in-the-loop AI, responsible automation and mission-aligned skills as core tenets.
Pivoting to the operating environment, Gen Dwivedi outlined his “3Ds”—Democratisation of technology, Diffusion of geography and Demography (new actors)—that define the future battlefield. With AI, quantum computing, robotics, autonomous systems, directed-energy weapons and cyber tools now widely accessible, he said platforms by themselves no longer confer an edge; layered capabilities and grey-zone agility will shape outcomes. On geography, he stressed how the battlespace has widened and blurred: “Geographic boundaries matter less. You will see soldiers, auxiliaries and commercial players in the same battlespace—sometimes even selling to both sides. ”Kinetic, contact battles will continue, he noted, but non-kinetic contests in cyber, economic and information domains increasingly influence results before the first round is fired.
Setting this in the Indian context, General Dwivedi said the Army must harness emerging technologies while staying coherent across the five generations of warfare. Trench-warfare fundamentals persist in certain terrains, but they now integrate with robotics, unmanned systems and hybrid tactics through to contemporary, multi-domain concepts. With India’s geography and extensive land borders, he added, land remains the currency of victory; technology will be judged by what it delivers on land—destruction, eviction, occupation or coercion—while synchronising effects in virtual domains through “smart boots on the ground” working with autonomous systems and digital enablers.
Turning to what the Army is changing in tech, Gen Dwivedi described a shift from Industry 4.0’s focus on AI, quantum and automation to Industry 5.0’s emphasis on people-centric design—putting soldier well-being, creativity and decision-making at the centre. That means human-in-the-loop AI at the edge; responsible automation that is auditable and resilient; and skills pipelines aligned to operational needs. The envisioned force pairs soldiers with bots; maintains persistent sensing (“ears on the net”) via electronic intelligence and cyber tools; and fields first-person-view drones, logistics UAVs and unmanned ground systems under cloud-centric command—while retaining network-centric fallbacks for isolated fights where technology may be degraded.
He said the Army is prioritising signature management—stealth, shielding and digital discipline—alongside firepower, with digitisation enabling biosensing of soldier health, location and readiness to improve survivability and sustainment. A pragmatic modernisation path will keep legacy systems in service for five to seven years with smart upgrade kits as newer platforms mature through full development cycles. At the same time, infrastructure gaps—spectrum, networks and satellite links—are being addressed step-by-step, with data processing pushed closer to the fight and decision-making pushed to the edge to shorten the sensor-to-shooter loop.