Army Chief Dhiraj Seth Opens Mechanised Forces Symposium 2026

General Dhiraj Seth, the Chief of the Army Staff, delivered the Cavalry Memorial Address at the Mechanised Forces Symposium 2026 on 11 November 2026. The venue was the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi, and his subject was ‘Vision for Future Warfighting in the Indian Subcontinent’. The address was the centrepiece of the opening session of the two-day gathering.

Who organises the symposium

The symposium is held by the Cavalry Officers’ Association in collaboration with the Directorate General of Mechanised Forces. It brings senior serving officers, veterans, defence scientists, representatives of industry and strategic thinkers onto one platform to debate how the character of warfare is changing.

What the Army Chief said

The Chief of the Army Staff set out the transformation the Indian Army has under way to meet emerging operational challenges. Buying modern equipment and restructuring organisations, he said, is not the whole of the task: a culture of innovation, the readiness to absorb technology and plain agility count for as much, with the Yoddha, the soldier, kept at the centre of it all. He named jointness and integration as critical enablers of future warfighting and pressed for seamless coordination across the services and across domains. He also restated the Army’s commitment to Aatmanirbharta, to be reached through indigenous capability development and firmer partnerships with industry and academia. Turning to the Mechanised Forces themselves, he described their journey as a testament to the Army’s spirit of adaptation and said he was confident they would keep a pivotal role in future war.

Book release and keynote

The inaugural session began with a welcome address by Lt Gen Ashok Mehta (Retd), President of the Cavalry Officers’ Association. The same session saw the unveiling of the book ‘Armour 2040: Steel, Silicon & The Future Battlespace’, written by Lt Gen AB Shivane (Retd). Lt Gen Prit Pal Singh, Director General Mechanised Forces, gave the keynote address on ‘Contemporary Mechanised Warfare in the Indian Context’, in which he stressed the shift away from platform-centric capability towards an integrated, network-enabled and autonomous combat ecosystem.

On the agenda

Over its two days the symposium takes up artificial intelligence and autonomous kill chains, manned-unmanned teaming, integrated drone warfare, next-generation combat systems and multi-domain mechanised operations. It closes on 12 November 2026 with a valedictory fireside discussion titled ‘Indian Mechanised Forces 2035: Transforming for the Future Operational Environment’.