A recent example illustrates this deep-tech shift.
US forces are said to have used Anthropic’s AI tool Claude for intelligence assessment, target identification and simulated battle planning during the ongoing conflict with Iran, according to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal.
Even in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, AI technology has been deployed in intelligence gathering, surveillance and autonomous drone operations.
Global AI-based military strategy
Global military AI spending stood at roughly $4.6 billion in 2022. By 2023, it had doubled to $9.2 billion. Projections predict it will reach $38.8 billion by 2028, a near ninefold increase in six years, as stated in a study by Indian think tank — The Council for Strategic and Defense Research (CSDR).
These numbers reflect how seriously nations now view AI as central to national security. But more than the amount being spent, it is the nature of what AI does on the battlefield that matters.
Also Read: AI at war: The new arms raceThe Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative, in a study conducted with NATO’s Office of the Chief Scientist in March 2026, described this convergence of military and technology as the dawn of “algorithmic warfare.”
The concept rests on three key parameters — speed, scale, and autonomy — referring to decision-making, large-scale data processing, and independent system action with minimal human input. Together, these capabilities comprise what is called the “kill chain”.
The Global Military AI Spending Race | |
| World military AI spend (2022) | $4.6 bn |
| World military AI spend (2023) | $9.2 bn |
| Projected global spend (2028) | $38.8 bn |
| US dedicated AI & autonomy (FY2026) | $13.4 bn |
| China estimated PLA AI programmes (2024) | $1.6 bn+ |
| India dedicated military AI (annual) | ~$46 mn |
(Reference: Dr. Gaurav Saini, Council for Strategic and Defense Research, Feb 2026)
Col Aravind Mulimani (Retd), Vice President (Projects – Air Defence) at Zen Technologies, defines algorithmic warfare as a form in which algorithms drive the Observe–Orient–Decide–Act (OODA) loop at machine speed. Instead of humans deciding and systems executing, AI systems sense, decide, and act, with humans largely in a supervisory role. This shift is already happening in certain cases.
The Russia–Ukraine war offers a clear view of what algorithmic warfare looks like in practice.
The CSDR report highlights the use of AI-enabled geospatial intelligence systems to identify troop concentrations from satellite imagery in near real time. Computer vision algorithms, trained on vast amounts of battlefield drone footage, are being used to guide munitions to targets.
Ukrainian forces have also deployed what is described as “Uber targeting” — where one unit spots a target, shares the data over an encrypted network, and the strike is assigned to the most optimally positioned unit. As noted in the Atlantic Council report, this is a live example of AI-driven dynamic targeting.
Israel’s use of its “Lavender” system in the Middle East marks another significant development, as highlighted in the CSDR report. By combining satellite imagery with communications data, the system generates targeting recommendations with a precision impossible for humans, compressing a days-long intelligence cycle into near real-time outputs.
Col Mulimani summed it up: “AI’s impact on the global military domain is transformational, systemic, and accelerating. It is reshaping not just weapons, but how wars are planned, fought, and deterred across all domains (land, air, sea, cyber, space).”
AI usage in defence by US and China
The United States is pushing an “AI-first warfighting posture,” with US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth outlining a plan on January 9, 2026, to embed AI across military workflows as a foundational layer. The country’s key edge is data — decades of operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria have created vast training sets that strengthen AI models.
China, however, has a fundamentally varied approach in this field. As stated by the CSDR study, through “military-civil fusion,” China has formally obligated its enormous private technology sector to share all AI advances directly with the People’s Liberation Army. China’s objective is “intelligentisation” and the comprehensive AI-integration of its military by 2035.
Induction of AI into India’s military domain
India’s foray into military AI has evolved in distinct phases. Early efforts were not defence-led — the 2018 NITI Aayog strategy “#AIforAll” positioned AI primarily for agriculture, healthcare and financial inclusion, CSDR stated. That had no emphasis on military use.
That shifted in 2019 with the creation of the Defence Artificial Intelligence Council (DAIC) and the Defence AI Project Agency (DAIPA), marking the formal entry of AI into India’s national security framework. These marked India’s first institutionalisation of AI-based national security bodies, as highlighted by CSDR.
In 2021, India’s Army Day parade featured a demonstration of a 75-drone heterogeneous swarm — different sizes and types of drones coordinating reconnaissance missions with minimal human intervention. In 2022, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched 75 priority AI applications spanning facial recognition for border security, predictive maintenance algorithms for ageing equipment, and language translation tools.
According to the CSDR report, these had grown to 129 approved AI projects, out of which 77 have been completed.
Alongside policy and institutional developments, operational advancements such as drone swarms to AI-enabled intelligence systems, including those validated in Operation Sindoor in 2025, have reinforced AI’s role as a force multiplier, as stated by an Observer Research Foundation (ORF) study.
A key milestone came in October 2024 with the release of the Evaluating Trustworthy AI (ETAI) Framework by DRDO’s Scientific Analysis Group — India’s first structured mechanism to assess the safety, reliability and security of AI systems for military deployment.
According to Ezhilan Nanmaran, Head of Product and Strategic Partnerships at ideaForge Technology, “AI for us is also central to Atmanirbhar Bharat. By building this intelligence in India, we believe we can extend the reach of every soldier, save more lives and anchor truly sovereign defence capabilities for the country.”
India’s institutional and operational architecture
India’s military AI ecosystem is built around a four-step pipeline: The Defence AI Council (strategy and resources) feeds the Defence AI Project Agency (execution), which draws on DRDO’s Centre for AI and Robotics for R&D, and deploys through service-specific centres of excellence. Each service branch has a dedicated AI centre.
Also Read: Indian Army plans 30 drone types to counter evolving battlefield threats in future warfare scenarios; check full list
The Army’s AI Centre at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering in Mhow focuses on land-based systems. The Navy’s unit INS Valsura in Jamnagar pursues underwater domain awareness using machine learning algorithms. The Air Force’s Unit for Digitisation, Automation, AI and Application Networking manages airspace intelligence and predictive maintenance for aircraft.
In operational terms, the numbers are impressive as concluded in the CSDR report. The Indian Army has identified over 85 AI use cases spanning ISR, drone swarming, predictive analytics, and logistics optimisation, with 23 AI-driven applications already deployed and over 140 AI-enabled surveillance systems operational along the borders.
The Navy maintains 8–10 known AI initiatives focused on underwater domain awareness and maritime vessel tracking. The Air Force is pursuing 5–8 projects including image analysis for target recognition and integration into the Netra Mk2 Airborne Early Warning and Control System.
AI is also entering production. DRDO laboratories are using AI to streamline manufacturing of Agni, Prithvi, and Akash missile variants. Algorithms are being used to analyse material properties, aerodynamic models, and propulsion dynamics to predict performance and identify flaws in real time.
Col Mulimani mentions the areas in which AI is currently deployed in armed forces, “We can say that AI is already deeply embedded in seeing, sensing, and sustaining but only partially trusted in the killing and mitigation domain.”
Nanmaran mentions, “We see the most mature deployment in surveillance: our AI‑enabled drones today perform people and vehicle detection, multi‑object tracking, GPS‑denied navigation and trigger‑based alerting to keep a tight vigil on borders and conflict zones.”
AI-enabled warfare in next 10–20 years
Warfare is expected to become increasingly uncrewed, software-defined and electronically contested. As Nanmaran notes, “You will see dense layers of intelligent unmanned systems swarms & multi‑role UAVs doing ISR, logistics & precision effects, running AI on the edge so they can navigate without GPS, sense threats in real time and keep fighting through jamming and disruption.”
Col Aravind Mulimani points to a deeper shift from platform-centric to algorithm-centric warfare, where data, networks and decision speed determine outcomes more than hardware itself.
Yet key controls remain human. Decisions around nuclear weapons, escalation, rules of engagement and political objectives will not be ceded to machines.
As he puts it, “AI changes how wars are fought, not why they are fought!”
