Lt Gen Adosh Kumar, Director General of Artillery and head of the Indian Army’s Artillery Division, said Sunday that India’s indigenous weapon systems played a decisive role in Operation SINDOOR, asserting they “successfully neutralised the enemy’s fancied imported weapons and equipment.” In an interview on the WION podcast, he stressed the need to sustain momentum on defence indigenisation and to increase investment in research and development.
Commissioned in June 1986, Lt Gen Kumar — who took charge as Director General of Artillery in May 2023 — said the character of modern warfare has shifted to multi-domain, high-precision non-contact operations and described a corresponding change in India’s strategic signalling. “Zero Tolerance is a new normal,” he said, adding that punitive retaliation aims to “inflict considerable destruction on the enemy’s infrastructure so as to deter him from any misadventure in the future.”
On lessons from Op SINDOOR, Kumar highlighted several priorities for the Regiment of Artillery:
• Loiter munitions and standoff systems: He singled out loiter munitions as “low-cost, high-impact weapon systems” that proved effective in destroying precision targets, and argued for loiter munitions with greater range, endurance, modular warhead options and resilience in dense electronic-warfare environments.
• Range and precision: The emphasis, he said, must be on augmenting capability to engage targets at longer ranges with precision — a mix of guided rockets, missiles and tube artillery to exploit each system’s operational advantages.
• Persistent surveillance: He called for persistent surveillance at strategic, operational and tactical levels — from satellite imagery and air photos to radars and surveillance drones — for target acquisition, fire direction and post-strike damage assessment.
• Mobility and protection: Gun areas need greater overhead protection and artillery systems with enhanced mobility to shoot-and-scoot before they can be detected.
• Electronic warfare and digitisation: Increasing survivability and effectiveness in contested electronic environments requires stronger EW capabilities and faster digitisation and automation across levels.
Kumar described the modernisation plan as driven by six factors (he did not list them numerically in full) and reiterated progress on several projects: induction of more Pinaka rocket regiments, ongoing trials for guided extended-range Pinaka rockets (which he said would double range and add precision), deliveries of K9 guns under a December contract over the next two to three years, and development of longer-range rocket options (including 120-km and 300-km ranges) fired from the Pinaka launcher.
“The Pinaka rocket system has been a success story of India’s Atmanirbharta,” he said, adding that guided, extended-range variants were under trials with contract action expected in the current financial year.
On unmanned systems, Lt Gen Kumar emphasised the transformative role of UAS in contemporary conflicts — citing recent global examples where kamikaze drones were used against strategic assets — and advocated for AI-enabled unmanned aerial systems capable of precision targeting. He also referred to domestic organisational changes: raising Shaktiban regiments and Divyastra batteries to augment UAS capability, establishing a Drone Experience Centre, and introducing simulators and virtual-reality observation post training at the School of Artillery.
Training, he said, must keep pace with technology: simulators and live-firing exposures complement each other to build operator proficiency, and the school has introduced VR observation-post simulators so observation officers can train in realistic environments.
Looking ahead, Kumar described future warfare as likely to be complex, hybrid and multi-domain, with higher battlefield transparency and simultaneous, high-intensity operations. He argued for a “judicious mix of guns, rockets and missiles,” and said capability development should be futuristic but time-based, responsive to terrain and threat dynamics.
Concluding with a strategic vision, Lt Gen Kumar said the Regiment of Artillery is shifting “from an arm of influence to an arm of decision.” Anchored in the Chief of Army Staff’s transformation agenda, the plan stresses modernisation through indigenisation, integration of public and private industry, and creating a decisive, technology-enabled artillery arm that can shape battlefield outcomes.
