The Author is Former Director General of Information Systems and A Special Forces Veteran, Indian Army

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the outline of the missile defence system, terming it 'Sudarshan Chakra', in his Independence Day speech from Red Fort on August 15, 2025. India will build a 'Sudarshan Chakra', a 'multi-layered framework' to integrate advanced surveillance, cyber protection, and physical safeguards to protect its citizens and infrastructure from enemy strikes, terrorist or otherwise, he announced. He further said he wants to expand and modernise this shield by 2035, and that the entire system should be researched, developed, and manufactured in India.

According to the 'Linga Purana', Lord Shiva gave the Sudarshan Chakra to Lord Vishnu for fighting the asuras (demons). In Hindu mythology, the Sudarshana Chakra is primarily associated with Lord Vishnu and his avatar, Lord Krishna; a divine, circular weapon with sharp edges, known for its power to destroy evil and protect righteousness. In various scriptures and legends, Lord Krishna is depicted wielding the Sudarshana Chakra to vanquish demons and uphold dharma (righteousness).

India's Sudarshan Chakra will need to be better than Israel's Iron Dome; having a muti-layered, scalable architecture to confront nuclear adversaries, integrating advanced surveillance, cyber security, and physical safeguards

America's Donald Trump Administration is planning the 'Golden Dome' land, sea, and space-based missile defence shield for the US, which is estimated to cost $200 billion. Existing advanced anti-missile systems include: Russia's S-400/S-500, the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) and Patriot systems; Israel's Iron Dome and David's Sling; China's HQ-9 long-range, surface-to-air system. Notably, Iran's hypersonic missiles could penetrate Israel's Iron Dome. Also, according to one report, the US used 25 per cent of its total THAAD missiles to protect Israel during the Iran-Israel War during June 2025.

India's Sudarshan Chakra will need to be better than Israel's Iron Dome; having a muti-layered, scalable architecture to confront nuclear adversaries like China and Pakistan, drones, cruise missiles and hypersonic missiles in a subcontinental battlefield, integrating advanced surveillance, cyber security, and physical safeguards.

India's Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme, launched in 1999, comprises the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) to target incoming projectiles at lower altitudes and the Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) for high-altitude interception.

INDIA'S INDIGENOUS SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILE 'PRALAY'

India's Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme, launched in 1999, comprises the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) to target incoming projectiles at lower altitudes and the Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) for high-altitude interception.The AAD focuses on endo-atmospheric interception of missiles with ranges up to 200 km, while the PAD uses hypersonic interceptor missiles to foil multiple, simultaneous missile attacks outside the atmosphere. The BMD is complemented by the air defence assets of the three services; combat jets, radars, Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) Systems, Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) of the Indian Air Force (IAF), and the Akashteer network of the Indian Army. The performance of all these, including the S-400 AD missile system and the pin-point strikes of BrahMos missiles was on display during Operation 'Sindoor', in which the Indian Navy's AI-driven Trigun system was deployed for maritime domain awareness.

India has successfully tested the over 5,000 km range Agni-5 ballistic missile and the Agni-6 with a 10,000 to 12,000 km range is under development. New missiles like the 500-km range Pralay, the 1,000-km range subsonic land-attack cruise missile Nirbhay and the 800-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile are have already been inducted. Notably, the DRDO has successfully conducted the maiden test of the Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS); a multi-layered air defence system comprising all indigenous Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missiles (QRSAM), Advanced Very Short Range Air Defence System (VSHORADS) missiles and a high-power laser-based Directed Energy Weapon (DEW).

With regard to space-based surveillance, ISRO has fast-tracked the final phase of its Space-Based Surveillance project (SBS III) to place 52 surveillance and communication satellites into low-Earth and geostationary orbits from where they can monitor the enemy's military movements.

With regard to space-based surveillance, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has fast-tracked the final phase of its Space-Based Surveillance project (SBS III) to place 52 surveillance and communication satellites into low-Earth and geostationary orbits from where they can monitor the enemy's military movements. India perhaps can also launch its exclusive Military GPS, as was suggested in these columns recently. All these systems would get integrated in the proposed Sudarshan Chakra.

Admittedly, there are no shortcuts to self-reliance in defence, but efforts to form strategic global partnerships to absorb cutting-edge technologies has not borne much fruit, because of which India continues to be the top defence importer globally. Moreover, structural reform, especially of the DRDO are on hold because of vested interests, and investment in research and development (R&D) is hardly at the required levels knowing that critical/core technologies must be developed indigenously since no country would supply these to us.

Mission Sudarshan Chakra will require a sustained national focus, and enormous coordination and collaborative effort to ensure innovation and development of state-of-the-art core technologies

Looking at America's estimated $200 billion investment in its 'Golden Dome', Mission 'Sudarshan Chakra', without doubt will require major financial expenditure. This requires national will, considering that the share of defence expenditure of the Union Budget in 2025-2026 has come down to 13 per cent compared to 17 per cent in FY 2014, defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP has come down to 1.9 per cent compared to 2.4 per cent in 2013-2014 and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in FY2025-2026 will spend about 28 per cent of the defence budget on capital outlay compared to 32 per cent in FY 2013-2014. More importantly, India's investment in Research and Development (R&D) is significantly lower than China's and the US, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP. India spends approximately $71 billion, while the US spends around $885 billion and China spends about $723 billion annually. In terms of GDP, India's R&D expenditure is about 0.65 per cent, compared to the America's 3.5 per cent and China's 2.4 per cent. This aspect required serious introspection.

Finally, Mission Sudarshan Chakra will require a sustained national focus, and enormous coordination and collaborative effort to ensure innovation and development of state-of-the-art core technologies; a timed progression towards 2035 for evolving a defence manufacturing ecosystem for India's rise in order to retain strategic autonomy.