NEW DELHI: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General NS Raja Subramani on Thursday stressed the need for India’s defence acquisition system to adapt swiftly to keep pace with the changing character of warfare, saying that future military capability will depend not only on weapons but also on interconnected networks, data and the ability to rapidly develop and sustain capabilities.“Today software is the king – future battlefield winning capability will increasingly depend upon the networks, data, software and algorithms…Just like we built UPI, we now need to build similar equivalents for the military on scale,” Raja Subramani said at News18 Defcon 2026.CDS Subramani stressed upon the need to have the means to sustain, replenish, and repair weapons on the battlefield. He said the economics of war is also changing and highlighted the three Cs of the new economy: compute, compatibility and collaboration.“It is not enough to have weapons. Networks must talk, data must flow,” he said, stressing the need for greater interoperability and seamless data sharing across military systems. He emphasised that data-sharing networks and computing capabilities would be central to future multi-domain military operations and decision-making.The CDS emphasized that startups, universities, engineers, students and technology companies can all contribute towards the country’s mission of self-reliance and defence manufacturing. Talking about AI technology, he said that the real value of AI comes from its use in intelligence, analysis, mission planning, logistics and war gaming and decision support. He stressed on the need for AI that survives on the battlefield and works when communications are degraded.