Aiming to fall in line with the mantra of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', the Indian Army has indigenously developed an "end-to-end secure mobile ecosystem" aiming to provide secure communication with instant connectivity on the move, according to officials. The ecosystem – SAMBHAV (Secure Army Mobile Bharat Version) – operates on the contemporary 5G technology and will represent a "significant leap forward in India's defence capability", a senior official said.
"Mobile networks are prone to eavesdropping and therefore information security of mobiles is at risk of being compromised. An end-to-end secure mobile ecosystem which is network-agnostic has been developed to provide secure communication with instant connectivity on the move," the official said.
This leverages the potential of indigenous public cellular networks in the country and the ecosystem has "5G -ready handsets using multi-tier encryption", the official added.
Dual-use infrastructure
According to official sources, this aligns with the government’s efforts towards "dual-use infrastructure" and it also manifests "civil-military fusion" in the field of emerging technology.
In the context of the SAMBHAV ecosystem, "35,000 sets are to be configured in two phases, with initial 2,500 sets to be configured by January 15, and the remaining by May 31 this year," they added.
The secure applications which are indigenously developed, and operating system mark a "significant step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat", the official said.
Officials said that SAMBHAV will have multi-layered encryption with a pan-India secure ecosystem.
Army undergoing transformation
The Indian Army is undergoing transformation and is expected to achieve "significant capabilities in cyberspace", officials said.
"A robust cyber defence triad encompassing people, process and technology has been established by the Indian Army," the officials said.
Conventional capabilities are no longer the only measure of military prowess.
(With PTI inputs)
