Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Mission Sudarshan Chakra (MSC), an ambitious, decade-long programme to build an indigenously developed, multi-layered air and missile defence architecture to protect critical national assets, population centres and strategic infrastructure. MSC aims to fuse sensing, command-and-control, cyber resilience and kinetic/non-kinetic intercept capabilities into an integrated national shield that can detect, track, and neutralize aerial threats ranging from swarms of drones to missiles and hypersonic weapons. The government describes the mission as both a defensive shield and a deterrent that will enable rapid retaliation when required.
Why India launched Mission Sudarshan Chakra
Several factors explain the timing and scope of MSC. First, regional security dynamics in South Asia, including cross-border unmanned aerial system (UAS) attacks, ballistic missile proliferation, and Beijing’s expanding military capabilities, have highlighted gaps in layered air defences.
Second, lessons from recent conflicts worldwide (where cost-effective loitering munitions and missiles have changed operational equations) have accelerated the need for layered, automated responses. Third, MSC aligns with the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat push to indigenize advanced defence technology and build an exportable ecosystem. The Prime Minister and Defence Ministry have framed MSC as a combination of operational preparedness and industrial policy.
Conceptual architecture: multi-layer, multi-domain, AI-enabled
Mission Sudarshan Chakra is designed as a multi-tiered, multi-domain system that integrates sensors, shooters and data fusion across land, sea, air and space. Public descriptions and analysis indicate these primary components:
• Sensor Layer: A distributed network of ground radars, maritime radars, airborne platforms (patrol aircraft and AEW), and space-based sensors for long-range early warning and tracking. Space assets will be central to wide-area surveillance and missile-launch localization.
• Command, Control & Data Fusion: An automated, AI-assisted command chain to fuse sensor inputs, perform threat prioritization, and trigger rapid responses with human oversight. The emphasis is on low-latency data links and resilient communications.
• Kinetic Interceptors: Multiple intercept layers including long-range interceptors (analogous to S-400 style systems), mid-range missiles, short-range point-defences (including gun/CIWS-type systems adapted for land use), and anti-drone or counter-UAS capabilities. Project Kusha, highlighted in planning documents, appears to be the programme for next-generation interceptor trials.
• Non-Kinetic / Soft-Kill Tools: Electronic warfare, directed-energy weapons (DEW) and cyber measures to jam, blind, or otherwise neutralize threats without kinetic engagement. These options are especially relevant against swarms, loitering munitions, and GPS-guided systems.
Taken together, these layers are intended to detect and defeat threats at multiple altitudes and ranges, from close-in drone swarms to medium-range ballistic missiles, while also tracking attack sources for timely attribution and retaliatory options.
Phased delivery and timeline
Public materials suggest MSC is planned as a long-haul programme with phased milestones through 2035. Initial work emphasizes trials of interceptor systems (Project Kusha in 2026), expansion of counter-drone capabilities, and rapid procurement of short-range point-defence systems for vulnerable borders and strategic assets.
Full integration involving space-based sensors, a national AI command layer and layered interceptors is targeted over the next decade. The Defence Ministry also signals that indigenous industry will be the focus for manufacturing and sustainment.
Technology & industrial implications: opportunities and constraints
MSC is as much an industrial mission as a military one. Key opportunities include:
• Indigenization: Accelerating DRDO-led R&D and public-private partnerships to produce interceptors, advanced radars, AI systems and DEWs domestically. This dovetails with broader defence-industrial goals and export potential.
• S&T Upskilling: Investments in missile seeker technology, high-power microwave systems, directed-energy prototypes, and resilient space architectures will stimulate skill and supply-chain upgrades.
• AI & Data Infrastructure: Establishing AI models for sensor fusion, threat prediction and decision support will require large, secure compute and data infrastructures and governance frameworks to ensure explainability and human oversight.
However, constraints are salient. Development of hypersonic interceptors, quantum-resistant communications and space situational awareness capabilities is technically demanding and capital-intensive. Shipyards, ordnance factories and electronics suppliers must scale quickly to meet the operational cadence MSC requires. Procurement timelines and bureaucratic processes, perennial issues in defence acquisition, will be critical risk items to manage.
Integration with existing programmes and doctrine
MSC is intended to mesh with India’s existing Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) efforts, the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS), and tri-service structures like the Defence Space Agency and Defence Cyber Agency. Achieving operational unity will demand common standards, secure data-sharing, and joint operational doctrine. Defence leadership has emphasised a single operational picture across Army, Navy and Air Force assets to ensure rapid response and attribution.
Strategic and regional implications
A credible national shield has multiple strategic advantages:
• Deterrence & Hardening: MSC would blunt the military utility of short-range ballistic and cruise missile salvos as well as drone attacks, raising costs for potential attackers and safeguarding high-value assets.
• Operational Flexibility: By reducing vulnerability of critical nodes (ports, airfields, command centres), MSC could allow India greater freedom of manoeuvre during crises.
• Diplomacy & Defence Exports: Successful indigenous development would enhance India’s strategic outreach (defence partnerships, joint R&D) and open potential export markets among friendly states seeking area-defence solutions.
Regionally, neighbours and partners will watch MSC’s capabilities closely. The technology choices India makes, such as reliance on domestic versus imported subsystems and integration with allied systems, will shape interoperability and future defence collaboration.
Risks and governance considerations
MSC’s technological ambition brings governance challenges. Reliance on AI for fast decision loops raises questions about explainability, human-in-the-loop safeguards and escalation control. Space debris and norms of responsible behaviour in space loom large after anti-satellite demonstrations in several countries; MSC’s space-based sensors and potential counter-space elements will need transparency and adherence to responsible norms to avoid destabilizing escalatory dynamics. Finally, the programme’s success hinges on robust cybersecurity to prevent adversarial manipulation of sensor data or command links.
Conclusion: a strategic bet on technology and industry
Mission Sudarshan Chakra is India’s strategic response to a changed aerial threat landscape. It is an attempt to combine indigenous R&D, AI-enabled decision systems, layered interceptors and space assets into a national shield that provides both protection and deterrence. Success will depend on realistic timelines, streamlined procurement, sustained funding, and close civil-military coordination, including clear governance for AI and space use.
If implemented effectively, MSC could shore up India’s defence posture and catalyse a domestic high-technology industrial ecosystem. If it falters, capability gaps and rising threats could leave critical vulnerabilities. Given the programme’s centrality to India’s future defence calculus, MSC is a strategic bet that the country’s defence innovation and industrial ecosystem must make good on.