General Dwivedi (file photo)

New Delhi: Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Saturday said future conflicts will move beyond conventional battlefields and be fought across multiple domains, including cyber, space and cognitive warfare, and also said the armed forces are fully prepared for ‘Operation Sindoor 2.0’ if needed.Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the NDA passing-out parade in Pune, General Dwivedi said, “As far as Operation Sindoor is concerned, first of all, it is still going on. There is a temporary cessation of hostilities. So the Indian Army and all the three services are preparing well for Operation Sindoor 2.0, if it happens.” He said future warfare will not be limited to just land, sea and air, but will increasingly be influenced by emerging domains such as space, cyber and cognitive warfare.General Dwivedi said, modern battlefields have become highly transparent and military planners must remain vigilant about deployment and force protection measures.Explaining the need for AI-powered systems, the Army key technologies help optimize resource utilization and improve operational efficiency on the battlefield. To explain this he said, “In today’s environment, we also have a lot of drones coming. Now, you need counter-drone equipment, and you need to deploy your drones. So, the resources available on the battlefield are huge. To handle such resources, you need some kind of automation, and artificial intelligence plays a very important role.“On information war, the General said, “Victory is always in the mind. It is not on the ground. Therefore, information war is successful only when the entire country comes together and trusts the people providing information.” If that happens, I can assure you that the nation that trusts each other and all these stakeholders will always win the war.The General said that the Indian Army is fully conscious of modernization changes. “We are transforming ourselves into a future-ready force under the ‘Decade of Transformation’ in which the younger generation will play a vital role,” he said.