USI organised a scholars presentation on the Topic, “PLA Increasing Non-Contact Warfare capabilities,” on 28 January 2020. Welcome remarks were made by Maj Gen BK Sharma, AVSM, SM** (Retd), Director USI. The external discussant for the session was Lt Gen SL Narasimhan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd).
Brig Vivek Verma in his presentation highlighted his hypothesis, aims and objective and structure of his book. He gave an overview of the evolution of non-contact warfare, changing character and expanding domain, Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), its impact and contextualized it in context of non-contact warfare. He further deconstructed the tools of non-contact warfare and examined its various attributes. He also discussed the Chinese policy of adopting non-contact warfare as part of larger security doctrine and how PLA is developing its capabilities. Finally he talked about how China is going to employ its non-contact warfare capabilities.
Director, USI suggested the research scholar to further streamline his book in context of RMA with Chinese characteristics and where the non-contact warfare stands within Chinese strategy of RMA. He also suggested looking into the doctrinal shift in the Chinese warfare approach. External discussant Lt Gen SL Narasimhan (Retd), recommended controlling the scope of the book and concentrating more on the non-contact warfare aspect. He also gave valuable insight on the PLA strategic support force, war zone campaign, marine brigade and maritime militias, Chinese nuclear capabilities. He also recommended the scholar to look into the new domains like integrated electronic warfare, Russia and China joint experiments to modify Earth’s atmosphere, detecting the phenomenon of gravitational waves in space and its use in non-contact warfare. During the Q&A session, suggestions were also made on role of Rocket Force in non-contact warfare. Defence personnel, scholars from many organizations and think-tanks also attended the session.