‘Sudharshan Chakra will act both as a shield and a sword’: CDS Chauhan on India’s ‘Iron Dome’

Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday outlined India’s plan to build its own version of an ‘Iron Dome’ under Mission Sudarshan Chakra, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the project in his Independence Day speech.

He said the mission would focus on creating strong infrastructure and processes to detect, track, and neutralise enemy aerial threats through both soft kills like electronic or cyber measures, and hard kills such as missiles and lasers.

“The aim is to develop a system to protect India’s strategic, civilian, and nationally important sites. It will act both as a shield as well as a sword,” Chauhan said at the Ran Samwad conclave in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh.

Calling it “India’s own Iron Dome or Golden Dome,” the CDS stressed that the project would require multi-domain intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), integrating sensors across land, air, sea, undersea, and space. He added that advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing would be crucial for real-time analysis and response.

Gen Anil Chauhan was speaking at Ran Samwad 2025, a two-day tri-service dialogue on war, warfare, and warfighting, held at the Army War College in Mhow. The event, described as the first of its kind, includes thematic sessions led by serving officers sharing first-hand operational experiences and lessons from modern battlefields, along with the release of joint doctrines and a roadmap for future technological capabilities.

“For a vast country like India, a project of this magnitude will need a whole-of-nation approach. I am sure we will do it at an affordable cost,” he said, noting that a “colossal amount of data will need to be analysed for information and real-time response.”