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21 October 2025

AI And Cyber Warfare Redefine Global Security Frontlines

India’s ethical AI model, U.S. cyber modernization, and the spread of surveillance technologies force urgent debates about accountability and deterrence in a rapidly evolving digital arms race.

On October 21, 2025, the world stands at a technological crossroads where war is no longer just a clash of tanks and jets, but a contest of code, algorithms, and surveillance. From the bustling streets of Delhi to the digital corridors of Washington, D.C., the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI), drones, and cyber tools is fundamentally reshaping national security, raising urgent questions about ethics, accountability, and the very meaning of deterrence in the 21st century.

In 2023, India jolted global analysts when its AI-powered missile defense system intercepted a simulated hypersonic threat—a feat that drew attention not just for its technical prowess, but for the ethical framework embedded in its design. According to a report cited by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, India’s approach integrates civilian oversight with defense research, ensuring that every AI deployment in the military is subject to rigorous ethical review. The Responsible AI Certification Pilot, for example, mandates that algorithms be evaluated for explainability before they are ever cleared for use. Developers are required to document bias-mitigation measures and escalation pathways, embedding accountability at the design phase and reducing the risk of unintended, algorithmic behaviors that could spiral into conflict.

India’s Evaluating Trustworthy AI (ETAI) Framework sets out five core principles: reliability, security, transparency, fairness, and privacy. These aren’t just buzzwords. As General Anil Chauhan, India’s Chief of Defense Staff, emphasized, “Resilience against adversarial attacks is paramount; we must balance effectiveness with safety at every turn.” Continuous validation against evolving threats is mandated, preventing mission creep and ensuring that operational integrity is never compromised, even under stress.

This “dual use by design” philosophy means safeguards are built into prototypes from the outset, a marked contrast to the reactive models seen elsewhere. Civilian launch-authorization channels keep political intent distinct from technical execution, ensuring that crucial decisions remain in human hands—especially in moments of crisis. Regular red-team exercises, involving independent experts, further test these systems, reducing the risk of false positives in autonomous targeting.

Yet, as India and its neighbors—Pakistan and China—race to adopt AI-enabled military capabilities, the region’s colonial legacies, deep-seated mistrust, and asymmetric force balances create a volatile strategic environment. According to BBC analysis, existing arms control regimes simply don’t account for these unique South Asian dynamics, undermining the credibility of American extended deterrence and complicating Washington’s efforts to reassure allies or deter aggressors.

Against this backdrop, U.S.-India cooperation is emerging as a linchpin for global security. The Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), launched in January 2023, has already enabled co-production of jet engines and the transfer of advanced drone technologies. The INDUS-X initiative, announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2023 visit to the United States, aims to integrate responsible AI principles into joint defense innovation. As outlined in the iCET fact sheet, specialized working groups are developing common benchmarks for adversarial-resistance testing and automated anomaly detection, while a proposed trilateral verification cell would blend American evaluation tools with India’s ethical review processes.

These collaborations are not just technical exercises—they are confidence-building measures. A shared “AI Red Flag” system is envisioned to alert capitals to anomalous behaviors in real time, reducing the risk of strategic surprise. Embedding cryptographically secure logging of decision-path data ensures an immutable audit trail, enabling post-event analysis and bolstering mutual trust.

But the arms race in AI is not confined to the military. In India’s cities, AI-driven surveillance systems are multiplying under the banner of “smart safety.” Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru now bristle with cameras that recognize faces, predict movements, and, in some cases, decide who looks suspicious. According to reports from Maktoob, Delhi Police have used facial recognition technology to identify and detain protestors—often without legal transparency. “Safety for some can feel like surveillance for others,” a Maktoob essay aptly notes, highlighting how these “smart eyes” can become instruments of suspicion, especially among Muslim communities and other minorities.

The ethical dilemmas don’t end there. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 grants broad exemptions for state surveillance, leaving citizens with little recourse if their privacy is violated. As drones hum over Kashmir and the Northeast, and cyberattacks disrupt power grids, hospitals, and government networks—a reality since the 2017 NotPetya malware incident—the boundaries between national defense and domestic control are blurring. Who safeguards the rights of those being watched? Who holds the government accountable to ensure that security measures do not quietly suppress a free populace?

Tom Afferton, president of Peraton’s cyber mission sector in the United States, sees similar challenges at home. In a recent interview with ExecutiveBiz, Afferton warned, “One of the most critical threats today is the compromise of critical infrastructure systems by nation-state adversaries.” Peraton is deploying edge processing and agentic AI analysis to detect, classify, and remediate cyber intrusions in near real-time—capabilities that do more than just alert teams. These systems can autonomously analyze network anomalies, execute countermeasures, and continuously learn to enhance defenses, all while reducing human labor and accelerating response times.

Afferton argues that “secure by design” must become an operational reality, with proactive analysis of end-of-life devices and mandatory vendor cooperation when breaches occur. Peraton’s IRIS platform, for instance, has transformed counter-influence operations, enabling decision-making ten times faster and cutting planning cycles by 60 percent. In the broader information war, this agility is crucial as adversaries outspend the U.S. by margins as high as 60 to 1 in key regions.

Looking ahead, the United Nations General Assembly is set to convene in September 2024 to address AI governance. The UNIDIR report calls for universal bias audits and incident-reporting obligations, while Carnegie scholars propose a tiered certification process for autonomous systems. Embedding these standards in national export-control regimes could create global incentives for ethical adherence, balancing procedural transparency with necessary confidentiality.

For India and its neighbors, the stakes are high. The successful test of India’s hypersonic ET-LDHCM system—capable of Mach 8 and a 1,500-kilometer range—underscores the urgency of robust governance frameworks before fully autonomous weapons are deployed. Regional confidence-building measures, such as joint research on AI safety, shared performance databases, and collaborative development of detection algorithms, could help prevent dangerous asymmetries and inadvertent escalation.

Ultimately, the global race to integrate AI, drones, and cyber tools into defense and everyday life is not just a technical contest—it’s a test of our collective ethics. As technology blurs the line between war and peace, the measure of our humanity will depend on how we choose to govern these powerful new tools. India’s model, with its emphasis on ethical review, civilian oversight, and international cooperation, offers a promising blueprint for a safer, more accountable future.