Karachi: A two-day international conference on "Emerging Technologies and the Future Warfare," hosted by Maritime Centre of Excellence, culminated in Karachi today.
According to Radio Pakistan, the objective of the conference was to bring together maritime experts, academia, and defence industry representatives on one platform to discuss changing geostrategic trends and the impact of technology on modern warfare.
While addressing the conference, Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Naveed Ashraf, highlighted the importance of close collaboration between industry, end-users, and academia to drive innovation, adaptability, and operational relevance. He emphasized that such collaboration would promote indigenization and self-reliance, helping build a cost-effective and globally competitive defence ecosystem for Pakistan with export potential.
He further underlined the Indian Ocean as a key region where the future of warfare is being written due to its vast contribution to global trade flow, and any disruption can significantly impact global supply chains, energy prices, and economies connected to it.
The conference brought attention to the blurring lines between civil and military uses of advanced technologies, creating both opportunities and challenges for Pakistan's defence ecosystem. It also emphasized how rapid technological innovation is transforming warfare by redefining operational concepts, force structures, and their outcomes.
The event was attended by senior military leadership, policymakers, diplomats, academia, industry experts, and students from various universities. It concluded with a reaffirmation of the need for sustained intellectual synergy to navigate technology-driven transformations to harness future trends in warfare.