Sudarshan Chakra Mission: India's Defence Shield In A Polarised World
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a Sudarshan Chakra Mission in his Independence Day address gives a welcome, overarching character to India’s initiatives for strategic security in an increasingly polarised world. The immediate impetus for a scaling up of weapons systems by 2035 to protect economic and defence assets obviously comes from Operation Sindoor, but there is a much longer history of developing a ballistic missile defence programme in the country going back to the 1990s.
More recently, the acquisition of the Russian S-400 Triumf, a long-range air defence system, nine years ago raised the game for India, giving it the strike capability of up to 400 km. Significantly, in his address from the Red Fort, the Prime Minister emphasised that the Sudarshan Chakra should be indigenous, covering all aspects, such as research, development and manufacture.
Evidently, this goal would place the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in a central role, expanding its expertise in missile development, highlighted by the Akash missile that was inducted into the Army and Air Force in 2015 and its collaborative venture with Russia on BrahMos. Both these systems were reported to have been deployed in Op Sindoor.
Encouraging as the 40-year missile development experience has been, the Sudarshan Chakra Mission needs a clear roadmap for research and development, manufacturing, testing and induction, with sufficient financial and manufacturing bandwidth to fund a critical number of weapons systems.
The announcement of an ambitious mission to create a shield that would match any offensive technology used against India comes at a time of global headwinds on tariffs, notably the punitive US imposts on exports. In May, before the Trump administration’s announcement of 50% tariffs on India, the Defence Ministry hoped to ramp up its budget by Rs 50,000 crore in supplementary grants in December.
An increase in the department’s annual budget, estimated to be the fourth largest in the world at about $75 bn, to a 3% share of GDP from 2.4%, was recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in 2023. Charting a clear course in such choppy waters is key for the Sudarshan Chakra Mission. Indigenisation of development and manufacturing would help achieve self-reliance and potentially lower costs, although attrition is a big factor too: an attack on India could focus on exhausting the available arsenal, requiring costly replenishments, while cheaper systems offered to the belligerents by other countries would cause more economic pain.
The new mission should, therefore, be able to match global procurement prices and, simultaneously, achieve weapons production at scale within the tight time frame, navigating technology barriers that might be put up by hostile parties. It is a long road to the realisation of a fully indigenous weapons shield to safeguard cities, ports, highways, railways, nuclear sites and religious centres, but implementing a capability pathway may help raise productivity across many sections of defence-linked industries.
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