To meet challenges from China and Pakistan, the Indian Army is poised for generational jump to achieve secure information dominance in operational, managerial and administrative spheres through advance automation.
The Army’s Directorate General of Information Systems (DGIS) is the process of hosting a number of secure automation projects such as enhanced battlefield survelliance system ‘SANJAY’, Situational Awareness Module For Army (SAMA), Artillery Combat Command Control and Communication System (ACCCCS) and Situational Reporting Over Enterprise-Class GIS Platform (E-Sitrep), said sources in the defence establishment.
The projects are in various phases of development and are supposed to bring transitional changes since some of the systems are three decades old, pointed out sources in the defence establishment. Earlier the efforts even for automation were local and disjointed but now it’s global and at an enterprise level, observed defence sources.
Captive data centres
The Army also has invested in captive data centres in the country which would give it substantial capability to host applications. The data centres will be fully operational this year. This investment shall also make procurement of information systems faster, simpler and more inexpensive. The human resources are also being trained for absorbing cutting edge information technology. Adequate security measures will be placed to avoid misuse of highly sensitive information that would be available at such platforms, pointed out defence sources.
Through project SANJAY, the Army is establishing bulk surveillance centres right from Brigade till Army headquarters levels which will allow commanders and authorised staff to have a common picture with regard to bringing in a synergy for informed and faster conceptualisation of events, said sources.
The Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Ghaziabad is the project’s system integrator, and they have succeeded in meeting the Army’s aspiration after finishing trials in all terrains such as desert and mountains. It will also help in completing the sensor-shooter grid by integrating with the ACCCS.
The contract with the BEL is now being progressed further for delivery of surveillance centres for field formations by December 2025, said defence sources.
Another key project underway is the Situational Awareness Module for the Army (SAMA) which essentially is a digital repository of integrated inputs from all operational and managerial information systems. It’s a decision support system that can be upgraded to bring synergy with Air Force and Navy to meet requirements of theatreisation that the Ministry of Defence is aimed at make tri-services future battle ready, explainedsources.
SAMA has been developed at a time when the MoD had issued an RFI last October for Army Information and Decision Support System (AIDSS), an upgraded version of Army’s Combat Information Decision Support System (CIDSS).