Panel to draw up Sudarshan shield formed: Rajnath
Singh asked India’s top military commanders “to be proactive in their approach and strive to build the Sudarshan Chakra” as envisioned by the PM
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday announced that the government has set up a committee to examine Mission Sudarshan Chakra and come up with a plan to create a formidable military capability to defend the country’s defence and civilian installations against aerial attacks and also hit back with overwhelming force, signalling India’s intent to be ready for challenges of the future battlefield.
In his address at the biennial Combined Commanders’ Conference-2025 in Kolkata, he said the panel will hammer out “a realistic action plan” to take the project forward, suggesting a medium-term approach for the next five years and a long-term one for the next ten to bring it to fruition.
The theme for this year’s conference is Year of Reforms --- Transforming for the Future.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Mission Sudarshan Chakra in his Independence Day address and set a 10-year deadline for developing the indigenous national defence shield.
Singh asked India’s top military commanders “to be proactive in their approach and strive to build the Sudarshan Chakra” as envisioned by the PM, adding India’s defence sector was an amalgamation of offensive and defensive capabilities.
Days after the announcement by the PM, India successfully tested a new integrated air defence system consisting of a variety of weapons that shot down three targets at different altitudes and ranges off the coast of Odisha. The maiden test of the integrated air defence weapon system (IADWS) was significant as it will be a part of the bigger national defence shield.
Chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan gave a broad outline of the mission in August --- it will involve a colossal amount of integration of myriad capabilities and the development of robust infrastructure and processes for the detection, acquisition, and neutralisation of the enemy’s air vectors (weapons) using soft and hard kill options including directed energy weapons.
Singh went on to underscore the importance of jointness and synergy among the three services as well as with other agencies, in line with the whole-of-nation approach, terming it as essential to deal with future challenges. Addressing the top three-day conference on its opening day, Modi on Monday instructed the defence ministry to swiftly implement concrete steps to achieve greater jointness, atmanirbharta and innovation to meet future challenges and prevail against any eventuality.
Jointness among the three services is an essential prerequisite to the creation of theatre commands. The apex conference comes at a time when there are differences within the three services on theaterisation, a long-awaited reform for the best use of the military’s resources to fight future wars.
Singh asked the armed forces to go beyond the traditional concepts of war and stay prepared to deal with invisible challenges emanating from unconventional threats such as information, ideological, ecological and biological warfare.
“Wars of today are so sudden and unpredictable that it is extremely difficult to foretell its duration. It can be two months, a year, or even five years. We need to be prepared. We need to ensure that our surge capacity remains sufficient,” he said.
The four-day military confrontation with Pakistan under Operation Sindoor showcased India’s robust air defence capabilities, which will be dovetailed with new weapons and systems under Mission Sudarshan Chakra. A locally developed air defence control and reporting system, called Akashteer, punctured multiple waves of Pakistani missile and drone attacks by guaranteeing prompt detection and targeting of the incoming threats. It was mated with the Indian Air Force’s Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS), the beating heart of the military’s resilient, four-tiered air defence shield.
India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 and struck terror and military installations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the April 22 Pahalgam terror strike in which 26 people were killed. Between the launch of the operation and the ceasefire on May 10 evening, Indian forces bombed nine terror camps in Pakistan and PoK, killing at least 100 terrorists, and struck targets at 13 Pakistani airbases and military installations.
