India's own Iron Dome? PM Modi announces indigenous defence shield 'Sudarshan Chakra'

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced launching Sudarshan Chakra – a powerful weapon to be built in 10 years – to provide a security shield to all important strategic and civilian installations including hospitals, railway lines and centres of faith.

Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Modi said, “The country will launch the Sudarshan Chakra Mission. This mission Sudarshan Chakra, a powerful weapon system, will not only neutralise the enemy's attack but will also hit back at the enemy many times more.”

What is Mission Sudarshan Chakra?

While Modi didn’t provide any details on the type of the weapon, sources said the Prime Minister might have hinted at an indigenous ballistic missile defence shield, which is under development.

"By 2035, all the important places of the nation, which include strategic as well as civilian areas, like hospitals, railways and any centre of faith, will be given complete security cover through new platforms of technology. Whatever technology comes to attack us, our technology should prove to be better than that in the coming 10 years,” he said.

'Precise like the mythical weapon'

The Prime Minister named the weapon after Lord Krishna’s mighty Sudarshan Chakra that was used by Krishna even to block the sunlight and create darkness during the day so that Arjuna could kill Jayadratha in the epic battle mentioned in the Mahabharata.

The new age Sudarshan Chakra, Modi said, would be a precise weapon like the mythical one and have scope to accommodate futuristic development so that India could always stay one step ahead of the enemy. Also the entire system, from research and development to manufacturing, will be indigenous.

"There will be a system, which will calculate the possibilities of the future in terms of warfare and work out the strategy of Plus One. We will move forward towards developing a system for targeted precise action through this Sudarshan Chakra,” he said.

India's own Iron Dome?

For more than two decades the Defence Research and Development Organisation has been working on a ballistic missile defence shield using Prithvi and Agni missiles to intercept enemy weapons at an exo-atmospheric altitude of 50-80 km or an endo-atmospheric elevation of up to 30 km.

In 2022, the Cabinet Committee of Security also approved Project Kusha, under which DRDO will come out with an extended range air defence system with three types of interceptors that can kill the incoming missiles at a distance of 150 km, 250 km and 400 km – something similar to what Russian origin S-400 air defence system does.

Incidentally S-400 that played a critical role during Operation Sindoor is known as Sudarshan Chakra in the Indian armed services.

While it is possible that Project Sudarshan Chakra, announced by the Prime Minister, will integrate more types of weapons and radars into a powerful air defence shield, the Union government has not provided any clarity so far.

Stung by US major General Electric’s failure to supply F-404 engines for homegrown Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, Modi also gave a call to scientists and engineers for developing jet engines in India for fighter jets.