The conception of war as battles in which groups of individuals belonging to a

particular tribe, nation or state, engage in physical combat, (preferably dressed in

different color, is more or less antiquated.)
The Napoleonic wars in themselves were a major revolution in the history of
warfare. Appropriately enough, they sprung out of a revolution in France. The ‘big
idea’ or the revolution, involved the creation of a ‘national’ army. It was no more
mercenaries or brigands volunteering their services for a paymaster, most of whom
were monarchs under whom similar smaller paymasters – the feudal lords existed.
All this changed with the two World Wars fought in this century. Over a
period of time the impact of the industrial revolution was being felt on the instruments
of warfare and the nature of the armies. But the World Wars drew out this potential to
the maximum. The focus of the armies began to shift from the individual to the
technology that he commanded. The new and varied mechanical devices, which
brought forth machines with fearsome killing power, peaked with the atomic
explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Since then the developments in warfare have been technology oriented. A new
and major shift away from the mechanical has already been heralded. The 1991 Gulf
War revealed the devastating superiority of electronic warfare capability over
mechanical prowess. In particular; electronics, aviation, remote sensing, computers,
telecommunications, space and rocket technology, are the key areas which will drive
this change.
The battle stations of tomorrow may very well be humble desktops with a
surfeit of gadgets and ‘weaponry’, ready to do battle electronically from the comfort
of an armchair.