Long Read: Modi’s ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ Vision – What is India’s Nationwide, Integrated Missile Shield

Explained: What is India’s Sudarshan Chakra Mission – a Nationwide, Integrated Missile Shield by 2035. In a landmark address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a sweeping new national security initiative: the ‘Sudarshan Chakra Mission’. The announcement, which came just three months after the intense cross-border military hostilities with Pakistan known as Operation Sindoor, signals a profound shift in India’s Defence posture. Drawing a powerful parallel to the legendary celestial weapon of Lord Krishna, the Prime Minister framed the mission as a modern-day instrument of unerring precision and decisive action.

Its core objective is to erect a multi-layered, integrated air and missile Defence shield that will extend protection not only to strategic military installations but also to critical civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, railways, and places of faith, across the entire nation. This ambitious project is slated for progressive expansion and modernization over the next decade, with the goal of achieving full operational status by 2035.

The mission’s strategic philosophy goes beyond mere Defence. The Prime Minister explicitly stated that the shield would not only neutralize enemy attacks but would also “hit back at the adversary ‘many times more'”.

This statement is a crucial departure from a purely reactive defensive doctrine, akin to Israel’s Iron Dome, which is designed primarily for interception. India’s vision, instead, integrates Defence with a decisive counter-offensive capability. This integrated approach fundamentally redefines India’s deterrence posture, suggesting a strategic shift from a defensive stance to a more proactive and assertive model of “assured retaliation.”

By establishing a robust, nationwide defensive shield, India gains the strategic confidence to respond to provocations with calibrated but overwhelming conventional force.

The announcement is directly linked to the impending expansion of India’s conventional (non-nuclear) missile arsenal, which will see the induction of the 500-km range quasi-ballistic missile Pralay and the 1,000-km range subsonic land-attack cruise missile.

Furthermore, plans are in place to increase the strike range of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from 450 km to 800 km. This layered approach, combining Defence and offence, raises the stakes for any potential adversary and reinforces a new doctrine of strategic confidence.

The Shield’s Foundation: A Multi-Layered Arsenal

The mission to build a nationwide shield is not starting from scratch; it will be built upon an existing and combat-proven air Defence architecture. At the heart of India’s current long-range Defence is the Russian-built S-400 “Triumf” system, domestically known as “Sudarshan Chakra”.

Its critical importance was underscored during Operation Sindoor in May 2025, when it achieved a historic 300 km surface-to-air kill of a Pakistan Air Force Airborne Warning and Control System (AWAC) aircraft, marking the longest recorded surface-to-air kill in history. The system’s performance was not limited to this single event; it successfully conducted 10 engagements during the conflict, including the neutralization of a Fatah-I rocket aimed at Delhi.

India’s existing order for five S-400 squadrons, valued at $5.43 billion, is well underway, with three squadrons delivered by 2025 and the remaining two expected by December 2026. Given its stellar performance, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is now pushing for the rapid procurement of two additional S-400 or S-500 batteries, with a preference for a government-to-government deal to expedite delivery between 2027 and 2029.

The S-400’s capabilities—tracking targets up to 600 km away and engaging them at a range of up to 400 km—provide a necessary long-range umbrella against a wide spectrum of threats, including fighters, AWACs, and ballistic missiles.

Complementing the S-400 are India’s indigenous medium- and short-range systems. The Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM), a collaboration with Israel, is a high-response, quick-reaction missile with a 70 km range.

The system’s mobility is enhanced by a vehicle-mounted launcher capable of carrying up to eight missiles. Another cornerstone of the indigenous Defence is the Akash missile system, which is in operational service with both the Indian Army and the IAF. With an operational range of 25-30 km, the Akash system is highly effective against fighter jets, cruise missiles, and drones and can engage multiple targets simultaneously.

Upgraded variants, such as the Akash Prime, have demonstrated enhanced accuracy in high-altitude conditions, further validating their combat readiness for integration into the layered Defence network.

The Defence architecture reveals a hybrid model of strategic capability. The ongoing push for indigenous development under the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) vision coexists with a continued, pragmatic reliance on high-end foreign systems.

The IAF’s desire for additional S-400/S-500 batteries, even as India develops its own comparable system, demonstrates a critical need for immediate, proven capability to counter evolving threats from China and Pakistan. This procurement strategy is not contradictory; rather, it reflects a nuanced understanding of geopolitical realities.
India is leveraging its key relationships, such as its role in balancing against China, which helped it avoid CAATSA sanctions from the US, to acquire critical, battle-tested technology.

This approach buys time for the domestic Defence industry to mature and close the technological gaps. The S-400 is the “Sudarshan Chakra” of today, providing a strategic umbrella, while the indigenous systems are being developed to become the self-reliant “Sudarshan Chakra” of tomorrow.

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Table 1: India’s Layered Air Defence: A Comparative Overview of Existing and Planned Systems

System Name	Country of Origin	Primary Role	Operational Range (in km)	Key Target Types	Integration with Akashteer/IACCS
Akash	India	Short- to Medium-Range Air Defence	25–30	Fighter jets, cruise missiles, drones	Yes
MRSAM	India, Israel	Medium-Range Air Defence	70	Missiles, aircraft, helicopters	Yes
Project Kusha	India	Extended/Long-Range Air Defence	150, 250, 350	Stealth fighters, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, AWACS	Yes
S-400 Triumf	Russia	Long-Range Strategic Air Defence	Up to 400	Aircraft, AWACS, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles	Yes

The Indigenous Future: The Making of a Homegrown Shield

The long-term vision for India’s nationwide missile shield is firmly rooted in indigenous capability. At the forefront of this effort is Project Kusha, a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) initiative also known as the Extended Range Air Defence System (ERADS). Designed as India’s homegrown alternative to the S-400, its primary purpose is to bridge the critical range gap that exists between the 80 km MRSAM and the 400 km S-400.

Project Kusha is being developed with three distinct interceptor missile variants: M1, M2, and M3, with ranges of 150 km, 250 km, and 350 km, respectively. The program is on an aggressive development timeline, with the first development trial of the M1 interceptor slated for 2025. According to Dr. Samir V. Kamat, Chairman of the DRDO, the full development of Project Kusha is expected to be completed by 2028, with its induction into the IAF and Indian Navy targeted for 2028–2029.

The ambition extends beyond this initial phase; Project Kusha’s Phase-II is intended to rival or even surpass Russia’s S-500 Prometheus, a system designed to counter hypersonic threats and engage targets at ranges of up to 600 km.
This long-range air Defence effort is part of a broader, decades-long national strategy. The building blocks for the new shield are already in place with the indigenous two-tier Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) Programme, which was launched in 1999 after the Kargil War. The first phase of this program, designed to track and destroy incoming ballistic missiles in the 2,000 km range class, has been completed and is awaiting operational deployment around national capital Delhi.

Furthermore, the successful flight-test of an endo-atmospheric interceptor missile under Phase-II demonstrated India’s capability to defend against hostile nuclear-capable missiles in the 5,000 km range class. This ongoing work highlights a crucial synergy within India’s Defence research ecosystem, as Project Kusha will borrow technologies and missile structures from the existing BMD program, demonstrating a cohesive and integrated development strategy.

The aggressive timeline for Project Kusha’s induction and the parallel push for more S-400s are not contradictory; they are part of a cohesive, phased strategy. The S-400 is an immediate, high-end import that provides India with a crucial window of security to develop its own comparable long-range system.

This is a strategic stopgap measure to mitigate immediate vulnerabilities, as indigenous systems are still several years away from full operational readiness. This approach reveals that the “Sudarshan Chakra Mission” is a carefully phased, long-term endeavor where tactical reliance on foreign platforms is temporary, while the indigenous development of Project Kusha represents the core, strategic goal of achieving true self-reliance.

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Table 2: Project Kusha Development and Deployment Timeline (2025-2035)

Milestone	Key Event Description	Target Date
First M1 Interceptor Trial	First development trial of the 150 km range M1 interceptor missile.	2025
Prototype Delivery	Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to deliver a prototype of the system.	2026
User Trials Begin	Full-scale user trials of the Project Kusha system begin.	2027–2028
Full Development Complete	All three interceptor variants (M1, M2, M3) and associated systems fully developed.	2028
Induction into Services	Induction into the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy.	2028–2029
Phase-II Development Begins	Work on advanced variants with capabilities to rival the S-500.	Post-2029
Sudarshan Chakra Operational	Nationwide shield, integrating all systems, becomes fully operational.	2035

The Nervous System of the Shield: A Unified, AI-Powered Network

While the physical components of the missile shield—the S-400, MRSAM, and Project Kusha—form its protective layers, its true strategic advantage lies in the sophisticated network that connects them. The “nervous system” of this shield is the Akashteer, an AI-powered Air Defence Control & Reporting System developed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). Akashteer’s core function is to integrate data from a wide range of surveillance assets, including radars, sensors, and space-based platforms, to create a single, real-time air picture for all commands.

The system’s game-changing capability is its ability to automate the entire air Defence mechanism, from threat detection and tracking to target engagement, thereby reducing human-in-the-loop delays. Akashteer demonstrated its strategic importance during Operation Sindoor, where it was activated alongside the S-400 to coordinate Defence operations and successfully neutralize incoming aerial attacks.

This successful, full-scale wartime debut showcased its ability to enable real-time decision-making, ensuring a rapid response to fast-moving threats like drone swarms and ballistic missiles. With features such as decentralized, mobile command units that allow “plug-and-fight” combat using a laptop, the system enhances battlefield agility and resilience.

Akashteer is part of a broader C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) framework. A crucial element of this framework is the integration of space-based assets, a move that provides India with sovereign control over its intelligence and targeting. The system leverages data from ISRO‘s Earth observation satellites and the indigenous NAVIC navigation system, ensuring precision targeting and eliminating reliance on foreign satellites.

By linking the Army‘s Akashteer with the IAF‘s Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) and the Navy’s Trigun system, India is creating a unified, inter-service air Defence picture. This level of synergy allows for a coordinated response across land, air, and sea, as stated by the Prime Minister.

The true innovation of the ‘Sudarshan Chakra Mission’ is not the individual interceptor missile, but the automated, AI-driven network that ties everything together. The system’s ability to make instantaneous decisions is a direct response to modern threats like hypersonic missiles and drone swarms, where the time from detection to interception is measured in seconds.

This places India in an elite club of nations with fully integrated, automated air Defence command and control capabilities, a “seismic shift” in warfare strategy. The mission’s success depends less on the individual capabilities of a missile and more on the seamless, instantaneous coordination of a “system of systems,” mirroring advanced concepts like the US’s proposed “Golden Dome”.

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Geopolitical Stakes: Strategic Stability in a Nuclear Neighborhood

The unveiling of the ‘Sudarshan Chakra Mission’ is a direct and calculated response to the rapidly evolving threat landscape. The catalyst for the mission was the lessons learned from Operation Sindoor, during which India’s existing network successfully thwarted “waves of Turkish drones and Chinese missiles” and suicide drone strikes from Pakistan. This tactical experience highlighted the growing danger posed by a mix of conventional military attacks and low-tech, asymmetrical threats.

Global conflicts, from Ukraine to the Middle East, have demonstrated the high-impact, low-cost nature of modern drone warfare, which poses a significant threat to critical infrastructure from both state and non-state actors. Specifically, Project Kusha and the indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) program are explicitly designed to counter fast-moving threats, such as Pakistan’s Fatah-I/II quasi-ballistic rockets and China’s DF-21 missiles.

In announcing the mission, India’s leadership directly compared its new shield to Israel’s Iron Dome and the US’s proposed Golden Dome, signaling a new level of strategic ambition. While Israel’s Iron Dome is a combat-proven system designed to counter low-flying rockets over a small area, and the US’s Golden Dome is a “system of systems” aimed at countering advanced threats like hypersonics and drone swarms, India’s ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ is distinct.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the shield’s integrated offence-and-Defence capability mark a fundamental difference in strategic philosophy. Unlike a purely defensive barrier, the ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ is a system designed to not only protect but also retaliate, marking a fundamental philosophical difference in its approach to deterrence.

The announcement of this shield has significant repercussions for strategic stability in South Asia. It is a direct response to specific threats from Pakistan’s military leadership. However, the development of a credible Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system could potentially lead to an “action-reaction” cycle. A perceived robust shield could provide the possessor state with a “false sense of protection,” potentially incentivizing a “first strike”. In response, Pakistan could contemplate countermeasures without engaging in a full-scale BMD race, such as developing MIRVs (Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles) to overwhelm the shield’s Defences or using indigenous drone swarms and electronic warfare to degrade its sensors and jam its command network.

The timing of the announcement, just months after Operation Sindoor and a specific threat from Pakistan’s Army chief, is a calculated political and military move. It is a public declaration of India’s strategic confidence in its ability to defend itself, and the direct comparison to the US and Israel’s Defence systems serves to elevate India’s status as a major global Defence player.

The Path to Self-Reliance: Industrial and Financial Realities

The ‘Sudarshan Chakra Mission’ is not merely a military undertaking but a national-level industrial project that will serve as a catalyst for the entire Indian Defence ecosystem. At its core, the mission represents a massive public-private partnership. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) serves as the primary research and design authority. Public sector undertakings (PSUs) like Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) are the primary manufacturers and development partners for systems like Akash and Project Kusha.
Crucially, the mission will require significant collaboration with the private sector. Companies such as Tata Advanced Systems have already played a key role, co-developing launchers for the MRSAM and Akash systems, as well as critical combat management systems. The increasing participation of the private sector is reflected in the fact that its share of Defence production is steadily rising, a trend that is bolstering India’s new status as a reliable Defence exporter. The success of the ‘Sudarshan Chakra Mission’ would undoubtedly propel India toward its ambitious goal of scaling Defence exports to ₹50,000 crore by 2029.

The Road Ahead

However, the path ahead is long and costly. The development and deployment of a nationwide shield will require “huge funding” and immense effort. The mission is not without its challenges, as it must compete for resources with other high-cost initiatives, such as the renewed push for an indigenous jet engine project. The history of delays in major Defence projects, such as the Kaveri engine project and the initial phases of the BMD program, serves as a cautionary tale.

The mission’s success depends on the ability to overcome these logistical and financial hurdles, build a robust domestic supply chain, and scale production from a few prototypes to a nationwide deployment within the ten-year timeline. Ultimately, the success or failure of this mission will be the definitive litmus test for India’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ vision in the Defence sector. The mission is not just about building a shield; it is about building an industrial base capable of producing next-generation systems for both domestic use and export.

The announcement of the ‘Sudarshan Chakra Mission’ marks a pivotal moment in India’s strategic journey, signaling a decisive shift toward a proactive, self-reliant, and technologically advanced Defence posture. The mission is built on a foundation of existing capabilities, leveraging the proven performance of foreign systems like the S-400 as a temporary strategic shield while aggressively pursuing indigenous alternatives like Project Kusha. The true innovation, however, lies in the development of a unified, AI-driven command-and-control network, Akashteer, which transforms individual missile systems into a cohesive and instantaneous “system of systems.”

This integrated approach to Defence and offence reflects a profound change in India’s strategic philosophy, moving beyond mere protection to a model of assured retaliation. While the mission will present significant industrial and financial challenges, its success would be a monumental achievement, solidifying India’s place as a major global Defence player and a technological leader. The ‘Sudarshan Chakra Mission’ is more than a military project; it is a national endeavor that aims to secure India’s strategic autonomy and shape its destiny in a complex and volatile world.

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