The New Indian Express ·
'Don’t outsource your thinking to an algorithm': Navy chief to new Army officers at OTA Chennai
NEW DELHI: Navy chief Admiral Krishna Swaminathan on Saturday told newly commissioned Army officers that technology could not substitute for judgement and that they must not “outsource your thinking to an algorithm”, as he reviewed the passing out parade at the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai.
A total of 342 officer cadets, including 29 women, were commissioned into the Indian Army from the 122nd Short Service Commission (SSC) course and the 36th SSC (Women) course.
Another 17 cadets from friendly foreign countries, 10 of them women, completed their training, the Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADGPI) said. Service attachés from Sudan, Uganda and Seychelles were also present.
“Your mind is your biggest weapon,” Adm Swaminathan said.
“Technology can give you information, speed and precision, but it certainly cannot replace wisdom.”
A moment would come, he said, when a soldier would ask a young officer what to do next and at that point “no textbook or PowerPoint presentation or ChatGPT will come to your rescue”.
Weapons now struck farther, sensors saw deeper and operations unfolded across domains simultaneously, Adm Swaminathan said. But the character of warfare having changed did not alter its nature. War, he said, “remains a profoundly human endeavour”, with combat outcomes settled by “the men and women who fight, lead, inspire, persist and persevere”.
He listed three realities awaiting the young officers: uncertainty, the compression of time between information and action, and what he called the responsibility of consequence, warning that tactical actions now carried strategic and international ramifications. He also flagged jointness, saying the Services must train, operate and, when called upon, prevail together irrespective of the colour of their uniforms.
It is the second year running that OTA Chennai’s parade has been reviewed by a chief from another Service.
Air Chief Marshal A P Singh reviewed the parade in September last year, where he cited Operation Sindoor as proof of synergy between the Army, Navy, Air Force and national security agencies and urged the cadets to uphold jointness.
That emphasis on jointness and integration also comes with theaterisation still awaiting government clearance. As reported earlier, three proposals for Integrated Theatre Commands (ITCs), a northern one facing China led by the Indian Army, a western one facing Pakistan led by the IAF and a maritime command under the Navy, were sent to the defence ministry by former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan before he demitted office.
They remain with the defence ministry, and any changes sought will be worked on before the proposals go to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by the Prime Minister, for higher political approval. Gen N S Raja Subramani, who took over as the third CDS, has named jointness and integration as his priorities.
The fresh commissioning comes against a persistent officer deficit. Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence (SCOD), in a report tabled in March last year, put the Army’s authorised officer strength, excluding the medical stream, at 50,538 against a posted strength of 42,095, a shortfall of 16.71 per cent. Annual vacancies for women officers were raised from 80 to 144 in 2024-25.
OTA Chennai was raised in 1963 to ease the officer shortfall exposed by the 1962 war with China. The academy runs a 49-week course and trains officers for all arms and services except the Army Medical Corps. Its first batch of women cadets joined in 1992.