When munitions start thinking: How India is turning conventional weapons ‘smart’

For decades, battlefield firepower depended largely on weapons that followed a predetermined path once fired. Mortar rounds travelled along ballistic trajectories, artillery shells followed their calculated arcs and unguided bombs depended heavily on the conditions at the moment of release.

Modern warfare is changing that equation. Guidance systems, sensors and increasingly sophisticated onboard electronics are allowing munitions to correct their flight after launch and strike targets with far greater precision.

India is also working on technologies aimed at bringing precision to existing classes of weapons, including mortar and artillery ammunition. The broader objective is significant: instead of relying only on expensive missiles or entirely new weapon systems, intelligence can increasingly be incorporated into the munition itself.

Speaking to WION, Abhishek Jain, Chief Business Officer of Zeus Numerix, said the distinction between conventional and smart ammunition can be surprisingly simple. “Smart basically means, can the munition decide for itself what to do in flight?”

Jain explained that this intelligence exists at different levels. A relatively simple system might correct only its range. More sophisticated weapons can correct both range and direction, while additional sensors can enable still greater precision.

But how much intelligence should actually be packed into a projectile? Jain says the answer depends on the mission. “Can we do more? Yes. Should we do more? Depends on the CONOPS, whether we require it or not.”

He said Zeus is working with navigation-based guidance in which a munition can detect that it is deviating from its intended trajectory and autonomously correct its course without further input from the operator. He also referred to multi-constellation satellite navigation, including Indian navigation capabilities, and systems combining satellite navigation with terminal laser guidance.

Yet greater sophistication comes at a price. “The moment you include more sensors, it becomes more and more expensive, so we have to be careful about that.”

That trade-off could become increasingly important on battlefields where militaries need both mass and precision. The future may therefore not simply belong to the smartest weapon available, but to one carrying exactly as much intelligence as the mission requires.