Mission Sudarshan Chakra requires colossal integration of capabilities: CDS

In his keynote address at the first-ever RAN Samwad seminar, CDS General Anil Chauhan said that changes based on lessons learnt from Operation Sindoor are already being implemented

India’s planned defence shield system under Mission Sudarshan Chakra, the launch of which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address, will require a colossal amount of integration of capabilities, development of infrastructure, and leveraging of big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and large language models to ensure real-time response to threats, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday.

 

“Sudarshan Chakra will require colossal amounts of integration and big data to ensure real-time response,” the CDS said on the opening day of the inaugural tri-service seminar on war, warfare, and warfighting — RAN Samwad 2025 — at the Army War College in Madhya Pradesh. Underlining that a whole-of-nation approach will be needed to develop the Sudarshan Chakra system, the CDS expressed confidence that India will be able to do so at minimal cost.

 

Multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) — a network of sensors distributed across land, air, sea, and space — will also be needed for the system to achieve its envisioned capabilities, the CDS underlined.

 

General Chauhan described the proposed system as India’s version of the American Golden Dome initiative — the recently announced $175 billion layered missile defence system comprising missile interceptors, radar arrays, lasers, and space-based defences. According to US defence major Lockheed Martin, the Golden Dome will protect the US from an array of aerial threats, including hypersonic missiles and drone swarms.

 

“Sudarshan Chakra will be an indigenous system that will serve as both sword and shield. It will protect the country’s strategic, civilian, and nationally important sites by detecting and neutralising enemy air vehicles using hard and soft kill capabilities, along with directed energy weapons,” added the CDS.

 

Referring to Operation Sindoor, the CDS said that necessary changes based on the lessons learnt are already being implemented. He clarified, however, that the seminar was not limited to lessons from India’s military response to the Pakistan-backed April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack but focused more broadly on understanding the impact of technology on future warfare scenarios.

 

“India has always stood on the side of peace. We are a peace-loving nation, but don’t get mistaken, we cannot be pacifists,” said General Chauhan, adding: “Peace without power is utopian.”

 

The CDS also underlined key trends emerging from recent conflicts across the globe. He noted that there is an increasing propensity among nation states to use force, driven by the belief that political objectives can be achieved through short wars where escalation control mechanisms exist. He further observed that the distinction between war and peace has eroded and the era of declared wars is over. Additionally, the matrices of victory have shifted towards the speed and tempo of operations, the ground effects of precision strikes, and the ability to control the narrative.

 

Highlighting that militaries across the world are in a race across multiple domains, the CDS said: “We have to be part of the third revolution in military affairs (advances in space-based, cyber, AI, and autonomous capabilities), and for this, we need not one but hundreds of scholar warriors.”

 

The two-day dialogue is aimed at laying the groundwork for a whole-of-nation approach to addressing the challenges of future conflict, a defence source said on the sidelines of the event. The focus, the source explained, is on creating a platform where warfighters, experts, industry, and media can come together to ensure not only an agile and adaptable fighting force but also to prepare the broader society to play its vital role in any possible scenario.

 

In the context of the ongoing efforts to enhance jointness and integration among the three forces, another defence source explained that the seminar’s aim is to develop a grounds-up understanding of the technological requirements of the services and then take it forward to align doctrine, training, and application of force with the changing nature of conflict.

 

Under Mission Sudarshan Chakra, Prime Minister Modi has vowed that by 2035, the country’s national security shield will be expanded, strengthened, and modernised, ensuring that all important sites — both strategic and civilian, including hospitals, railways, and centres of faith — will be fully protected through new technological platforms. The Prime Minister also explained that the mission would deliver a powerful weapon system capable not only of neutralising enemy attacks but also of striking back with multi-fold force.