About me
Lt Gen Rajeev Sabherwal, PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd) has spent more than four decades at the intersection of soldiering, technology and strategic thought and remains as curious about the future of warfare today as he was when he first wore the uniform.
A qualified paratrooper, he served for over 40 years in the Indian Army, culminating as the Signal Officer-in-Chief, the Army’s senior-most officer responsible for communications, cyber, electronic warfare, spectrum management and the digital battlefield. Earlier, as Commandant of the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, he headed the Army’s premier institution for education and research in communications, information technology, cyber security, electronic warfare and emerging technologies. During his career, he combined operational experience in conventional and counter-terrorism environments with the responsibility of shaping the networks, doctrines and technological capabilities of a million-strong Army.
As Signal Officer-in-Chief, General Sabherwal helped steer the Indian Army’s transition towards network-centric and information-enabled operations. His responsibilities ranged from strategic communication networks, cyber security and software-defined communications to electronic warfare, spectrum management and satellite-based capability requiring close engagement with the Government, DRDO, ISRO, academia and Indian industry.
Since hanging up his boots, he has continued to work where military requirements and industrial innovation meet. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, an advisor and board member to technology and defence companies, and a former Member of the Executive Council of Jawaharlal Nehru University. He actively mentors enterprises and startups working on technologies that could shape the future battlefield.
General Sabherwal is the author of Disrupt or Get Disrupted – Exploitation of Disruptive Technologies by the Indian Armed Forces. An avid reader, researcher and writer, he has a
particular interest in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cyber, electronic warfare, quantum technologies, secure communications and software-defined warfare.
He believes that many of the technologies that will decide tomorrow’s wars may emerge not only from military laboratories, but from startup garages, software centres, semiconductor facilities, universities and corporate R&D laboratories. His endeavour is to translate the operational realities of warfare into questions that engineers, entrepreneurs and business leaders can help answer.
His central question to industry is deceptively simple:
“The Armed Forces will fight the future war, but who will build the future battlefield?”
Away from strategy and technology, he is happiest with a book, a blank page or an experimental recipe although the results of the last activity, unlike his military assessments, occasionally remain classified.
