THE LAST WAR How AI Will Shape India’s Final Showdown With China

If India and China were to fight a war in thenear future, India faces the prospect of losing the war within ten days. Chinacould take Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh with a minimum loss of life, and thereis very little that India could do about it. This is because the Indianmilitary is preparing for the wrong war. In this eye-opening and disquietingbook, military expert and bestselling author Pravin Sawhney explains in greatdetail how this alarming scenario could play out.China'swar with India will be reminiscent of the 1991 Gulf War. The US military'sbattle networks connecting sensors to shooters and guided munitions withsupport from space assets had induced shock and awe in militaries worldwide.Similarly, China's war with India will stun the world with the use ofartificial intelligence, emerging technologies, multi-domain operations, imaginative war concepts, and collaboration between humans and intelligentrobots. China has been preparing for this since the 2017 Doklam crisis afterwhich it permanently augmented its troops across the Line of Actual Control.Theauthor argues that China's superpower status will only grow and the'capabilities lag' between the two countries will expand. And if there isoutright war, the Indian military will be no match for China's AI-backed warmachines. In such a war, traditional conventional forces will be at a hugedisadvantage, nuclear weapons will have no role to play, and the valour ofindividual soldiers will be of no consequence. India is honing its strengths tofight a war in the three physical domains of land, air, and the sea, whereasthe PLA is working on becoming the overwhelmingly superior force in sevendomains-air, land, sea (including deep-sea warfare), outer space, cyber space, the electromagnetic spectrum, and near space (aka the hypersonic domain). ThePLA's disruption technologies will overwhelm India within the first seventy-twohours of hostilities commencing, and will lead to the quick end of India'sresistance. The primary battleground will not be on land but in cyberspace andthe electromagnetic spectrum. TheLast War explains why it's critical that India works to prevent such a warever taking place.

It should avoid focusing onjoint combat with the US, whose power in the region is weakening. Instead, India should seek to make peace with China and Pakistan, its main adversariesat the moment, while simultaneously working to enhance its military andtechnological strengths in areas that it hasn't focused its resources on. Onlythen will the country's borders be firmly secure, and the region's future peaceand prosperity be assured.