When AI, Not Ammunition, Will Win Wars

THE recent skirmishes between India and Pakistan have demonstrated the shift in modern warfare.

- RAHUL AGARWALLA, Managing Partner, SenseAI Ventures

Some reports even noted how Indian forces leveraged AI. In future wars, victory will belong not just to those who strike harder, but to those who sense earlier, simulate faster, and respond smarter. AI is being embedded across the entire defence stack — from smart weapons to battle simulations and training, from autonomous vehicles in contested battlegrounds to algorithms running silent cyberwarfare in the background. What's changing isn't just the technology, but the doctrine.

Autonomy Is the New Air Superiority

In battles of yore and movies like Top Gun, ace pilots were regarded for their dog fighting skills. Today, most kills happen beyond visual range (BVR). This sets the context for wars with AI: we are now in a battle of information and intelligence, being able to detect enemies further out and attack them without risking assets or people. The defining weapon is no longer the missile alone, but the intelligence guiding it.

This is where startups must step in — building the next generation of autonomous vehicles that don’t just fly but reason, adapt, and persist. For instance, during India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’, indigenous drones equipped with AI-powered vision systems successfully navigated and returned to base despite GPS failures and communication blackouts. Potential opportunities for startups include autonomous targeting and navigation under signal-denied conditions; swarming intelligence for distributed, coordinated attacks; and modular platforms that can be deployed across terrains and missions.