Artificial intelligence is changing how wars are fought, and India needs a homegrown plan to keep up. That is the argument laid out in an explainer published by the Indian Express.
According to the Indian Express, recent conflicts and confrontations — with examples cited ranging from Iran to Venezuela, as well as the war between Russia and Ukraine — show how quickly AI-driven tools are moving to the center of modern military power.
The piece frames the challenge around what it calls a "trinity": AI, autonomy, and algorithmic warfare. In plain terms, that means smarter software for making sense of the battlefield, machines that can operate with less direct human control, and combat increasingly shaped by code and computation rather than manpower alone.
The Indian Express argues that India should embrace this trinity through what it describes as "sovereign pathways" — in other words, building these capabilities at home rather than depending on foreign technology. The emphasis on sovereignty reflects a wider concern that military AI is becoming too strategically important to outsource.
The source presents this as a matter of keeping pace. As other nations and non-state actors adopt autonomous and algorithm-driven systems, the piece suggests India risks falling behind unless it develops its own.
Why it matters: how a country as large as India chooses to build — or buy — military AI will shape both its security and the broader global race toward autonomous warfare.