New army chief set to keep up multi-domain capability drive

Chief of the Army Staff-designate Lieutenant General Dhiraj Seth, set to take charge on June 30, is expected to maintain the momentum behind the army’s capability development and modernisation efforts, having played a role in formulating the force’s long-term road map for both.

- BHASWAR KUMAR

The Centre on Saturday named Lieutenant General Seth, the current vice chief of the army staff (VCoAS), as the next chief of the army staff (CoAS).

He will assume office in the afternoon of June 30, 2026, when the incumbent, General Upendra Dwivedi, retires. Lieutenant General Seth has served as VCoAS since April 1, 2026.

Lieutenant General Seth’s appointment as CoAS comes just over a year after Operation Sindoor, the May 7-10 conflict with Pakistan that witnessed the army employ guided artillery and unmanned systems, aided by artificial intelligence (AI) tools, against both terrorist infrastructure and regular Pakistani military targets. The conflict also brought large-scale “kinetic, non-contact warfare” — centred on the use of missiles, drones and long-range precision weapons to engage targets from a distance — and “cognitive warfare” — the use of information and influence to shape, disrupt or degrade an adversary’s decision-making — to the subcontinent.

Lieutenant General Dushyant Singh (retired), director-general of the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, identified accelerating the country’s defence transformation as a key objective for Lieutenant General Seth as CoAS.