India’s New Air Defence Strategy: Building IADWS Sudarshan Chakra for Next War

India Moves Toward a New Air Defence Architecture

From standalone S-400 and integrated IACCS to Akash, India is reshaping its air-defence architecture amid an evolving Pakistan-China, Pakistan-Türkiye and Saudi-Arabia defence-pact security environment. On August,15 2025, Indian Prime minister introduced a new air-defence mission Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS) called as “Mission Sudarshan Chakra”. According to sources, India is planning an ambitious multi-layered missile defence programme aimed to protect critical military infrastructure from drones, ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, and adversary fighter jets. The deployment of IADWS Sudarshan Chakra is expected to be deployed between 2030 and 2040. The system shall act as a unified network integrating Army, Navy and Air-force into real-time command system.

IADWS is claimed to be India’s master plan to combine detection, surveillance, interception, and retaliation capabilities. It operates as a "shield " made not just to intercept incoming aerial threats, but also to measure and carry out immediate counter-strikes with both defensive and offensive capabilities. India hopes to create an air-defence system similar to Israel’s Iron Dome system. The mission operates on an expected budget of $13.65 billion to $17.85 billion dollars, collaborated by the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). 

Why India Is Building Sudarshan Chakra

India was forced to reassess its air-defence posture in response to Pakistan’s evolving threat dynamics, aiming to target stand-alone air-defence systems such as S-400, air bases, radar installations and IACCS integrated air-defence system. The announcement for IADWS came on 16 Aug,2025 by the Indian Prime-minister right after Pakistan’s threat to destroy any dams built by India causing any kind of blockade of water-flow towards Pakistan. In light of contemporary conflict dynamics, where water, energy infrastructure, economic assets where critical national infrastructure has become strategic pressure points. It appears that India is incorporating wider domains of warfare into its deterrence doctrine. Being aware that Indus river remains central to Pakistan’s agriculture and wider economy it builds water infrastructure to control flow of water towards Pakistan.

How India’s Multi-Layered Air Defence Will Work

The core components of Indian IADWS determining its functional capabilities are listed as following:

The system is divided into four kinetic and non-kinetic interception layers:

a) The Outer Layer: 

Employs Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) interceptors and S-400 system to neutralize high-altitude ballistic and hypersonic missile threats ranging 2,500 km away. 

b) Layer 3 (Long Range):

Anchored by Project Kusha an Extended Range Air Defence System indigenous system designed to intercept cruise missiles, stealth fighters, and drones at 350 km. 

c) Layer 2 (Medium Range): 

Features Akash-NG (Next Generation) and MR-SAM to handle maneuverable aircraft and multiple incoming missiles simultaneously. 

d) Layer 1 (Point Defence): 

Uses the Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS), combining Quick Reaction Missiles (QRSAM), Very Short-Range Air Defence System (VSHORADS) and Laser-based Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs).

The over-all architecture of IADWS shall contain AI-integration that enables tracking and destroying multiple threats simultaneously. According to Indian sources, its proposed framework contains following layers: the sensor layer, the command-and-control layer, and the interceptor layer. Altogether these layers help IADWS maintain interoperability to perform a continuous surveillance, AI-enabled decision-making, engagement, rapid response and maintain operational effectiveness. The core motivation behind operationalizing Sudarshan Chakra is to counter saturation attacks by Turkish and Chinese drones that can be use probably by the Pakistani Forces. 

Capabilities of IADW

In IADW concept, sensor tracks through multiple sources, assessed through a centralised command network and engaged by the most suitable available weapon. Indian officials say that the on-going Project Kusha which is an indigenous long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM) capable of hitting targets till 350 km range is also connected to this multi-layered air-defence project. While shorter-range systems such as QRSAM and VSHORADS would protect lower layers. It has been claimed in the defence sources that the system will be designed to tackle both nuclear as well as hypersonic weapons threats. Moreover, IACCS will combine data from multiple military branches to provide a single real-time picture of the battlefield. Whereas, AI and quantum-computing act as AI-assisted decision makers that prioritize threats and assign most cost-effective weapons to avoid saturation attempts by the drones.

Driving Factors behind Sudarshan Chakra ambitions:

The driving factor for India to revise this air-defence strategy was capability and vulnerabilities gaps exposed in the May stand-off against Pakistan, as stated by an Indian source electronicsforu. During the May 2025 contestation, drones deployed by Pakistani Forces were able to penetrate Indian airspaces, though limited in numbers, revealed shortcomings in low-altitude air defence, counter-drone, and point defence systems. Along with that, the lack of coordination across radar networks and communication systems prevented the seamless integration of air, space, cyber, and electronic warfare assets. Several advanced sensors and weapon systems, despite being effective independently, failed to integrate and fully convert into a real-time defence picture. The apprehensions grew further when Pakistan pursues its ambition to expand its air-defence networks with HQ-17 AE SHORADS and Turkish Korkut which is a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and procurement plans of J-35 fighter-jets. Moreover, the evolving alliances and defence agreements between Bangladesh and China for J-10 C fighter jets and Bangladesh’s intent to join Makkah-Pact along with Pakistan.

The revised Indian defence strategy should therefore be viewed not merely as a missile-defence programme, but as an attempt to prepare India for a diverse battlefield. It is expanding programs to build a layered shield capable of rapidly detecting threats, connecting multiple military assets and engaging them as per cost-effective requirements. Whether this ambition can be converted into a fully integrated and sustainable operational capability will determine the real value of Sudarshan Chakra in the next major conflict.