When Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on Independence Day about Mission Sudarshan Chakra, he invoked not only the divine weapon of Lord Krishna but also the civilisational memory of precision, speed, and decisive force. The Sudarshan Chakra has always symbolised more than war. It represents the ability to neutralise evil through calculated accuracy and timing. To frame national security in those terms is to remind India that the future battlefield is not about brute volume of fire but about the intelligent, integrated application of technology and will.
This announcement was not made in a vacuum. It comes at a time when India’s adversaries are reorganising their strike capabilities in ways that directly threaten the balance of power in South Asia. Pakistan has already announced the raising of a rocket force, inspired by China’s restructuring of its People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, aided and abetted by Chinese equipment and doctrine. Russia has relied on waves of missiles and drones in Ukraine to shape the battlefield before the manoeuvre phase. Israel has mastered the art of combining electronic disruption, drones, and missiles in carefully sequenced deep strikes against Iran and its proxies. These are not isolated moves. They point to a new age of precise mass wars in which mass, precision and volume saturate an adversary’s capabilities, causing physical and psychological paralysis; where victory rests on the fusion of missiles, rockets, drones, cyber capabilities, and where sensor-shooter-decision makers merge for battlespace dominance and integrated kill webs. It’s a realisation that modern warfare has transitioned from ‘Wars with Stand-Off capabilities’ to ‘War of Standoff Capabilities’.
For India, Mission Sudarshan Chakra represents a strategic opportunity to organise its precision strike potential into a single, integrated entity that goes beyond the traditional artillery model. The artillery of the twentieth century was about mass barrages and supporting infantry. The strike arm of the twenty-first century must be about shaping the battlespace long before the first battalion advances. That requires not only hardware but also doctrinal clarity and cultural reform within the military establishment.
The essence of this transformation lies in a concept that many militaries are already practising, though often without explicitly naming it: precision mass. Precision mass is not about simply firing accurately or in large volume. It is about the fusion of accuracy, volume, and timing in a single sequence that overwhelms the adversary’s ability to respond. An isolated precision strike can cause pain but not paralysis. A massed barrage without precision causes destruction but wastes resources. The combination of precision and mass, timed to collapse the enemy’s decision cycle, is what turns the tide.
Prime Minister Modi’s announcement to launch Mission Sudarshan Chakra comes at a time when India’s adversaries are reorganising their strike capabilities in ways that directly threaten the balance of power in South Asia. Pakistan has announced the raising of a rocket force, aided and abetted by Chinese equipment and doctrine
In Ukraine, the Ukrainian forces, by integrating Western-supplied rocket systems, integral drones, and missiles, have deep strategic and operational Russian targets with real-time fusion of sensors and shooters. Russia has fired waves of precision-guided ballistic missiles and drones to pierce through Ukrainian air defences and cripple their strategic and operational assets. Neither side is relying on artillery in the old sense. Both are experimenting with a fusion of precision and mass to shape the battlefield before conventional manoeuvre takes place.
In West Asia, Israel’s deep strike doctrine offers another lesson. Rarely does Israel carry out a single isolated strike. Instead, operations begin with electronic or cyber disruption to confuse the adversary. Drones and loitering munitions follow, probing and suppressing air defences. Precision missiles then deliver blows in mass while the adversary is still reeling from the earlier disruption. The entire sequence lasts minutes and saturates the adversary’s Air defence to make the damage irreversible. That is the essence of the concept of kill web in practice: different systems converging on the same target in real time, empowered by an integrated C5ISR grid and a cyber-secure multi-domain command and control (MDC2) system
Mission Sudarshan Chakra can become India’s answer to this new era of warfare. The building blocks already exist. The Indian Army fields Pinaka and Smerch rocket systems. The Air Force has dedicated BrahMos squadrons. The Strategic Forces Command controls a range of ballistic missiles. Indigenous drone programmes are expanding, and hypersonic glide vehicles under Project Vishnu are progressing. But the weakness lies in their dispersal across different commands, each with its own doctrine and tempo. In a conflict where minutes decide outcomes, such dispersal is a vulnerability. Mission Sudarshan Chakra can integrate these capabilities into a single precision strike arm with three verticals: long-range ballistic and hypersonic strike to neutralise hardened targets, long-range guided rocket artillery to saturate battle zones, and unmanned systems for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and kinetic effects.
Such a force would not be stitched together in an ad hoc fashion. It would be doctrine-enabled and powered by a C5ISR backbone that links every sensor to every shooter. A drone detecting armour in a valley should be able to pass coordinates instantly to a rocket battery two hundred kilometres away. A high altitude UAV identifying a strategic asset should be able to feed data directly to a hypersonic strike unit. That compression of the sensor-to-shooter loop from hours to minutes is the difference between deterrence and defeat.
The nervous system of Mission Sudarshan Chakra would, therefore, be an integrated digital command structure under a multi-domain command and control architecture. This would not only improve situational awareness but also shorten the full kill chain cycle of finding, fixing, tracking, targeting, engaging, and assessing. The payoff is exponential and overwhelming, and a coordinated strike where enemy radars are blinded by electronic warfare, loitering munitions neutralise exposed missile batteries, guided rockets and missiles destroy the command centre, and hypersonic weapons carry out precision and devastating damage on strategic assets. The adversary is paralysed before the manoeuvre has even begun.
Russia has fired waves of precision-guided ballistic missiles and drones to pierce through Ukrainian air defences and cripple their strategic and operational assets. Neither side relies on artillery in the old sense. Both are experimenting with a fusion of precision and mass to shape the battlefield before conventional manoeuvre takes place
Pakistan’s creation of a rocket force is an immediate reminder of why India cannot afford complacency. A failure to reorganise would allow an adversary to dictate the tempo of war through coordinated missile and drone attacks on Indian airbases, logistics hubs, and choke points in the opening hours of conflict. By the time decision-makers debate rules of engagement, the damage would already have been done. Mission Sudarshan Chakra is preparing for the future deterrence and warfighting, should deterrence fail. It aims at a pre-emptive and proactive strategy of denial and dominance strategy with the levers of escalation in control.
The argument of risk escalation and triggering an arms race in an already volatile region is absolutely misplaced. The truth is that inaction is the greater danger. Standing still while others move towards integrated strike arms only ensures that India will once again be forced into reactive postures under pressure. By contrast, a visible precision strike capability acts as deterrence by denial. It compels adversaries to spread assets thinner, harden multiple targets, and live with the constant knowledge that their strategic nodes are always within reach. That psychological pressure is as valuable in peace as the strike capability itself is in war.
The path forward will not be without challenges. Organisational reforms are critical. The artillery must evolve from support formations into precision fire brigades. A dedicated Unmanned Systems Directorate is needed at Army Headquarters to ensure drones are woven into targeting, battle damage assessment, and strike coordination. Joint theatre-level planning cells must integrate Army, Air Force, and Strategic Forces assets into a single strike plan rather than separate silos. Above all, cultural reform is essential. Legacy processes that value procedural clearance over real-time action must give way to a culture of trust, initiative, and decentralised execution.
Mission Sudarshan Chakra, therefore, is not about copying other nations or a response to the Rocket Force. It is a Rocket Force ++ capability. It is about recognising the techno-digital wars of the 21st Century and anchoring India’s deterrence based on integral doctrines and indigenous capabilities. The Sudarshan Chakra was never a weapon of ruthless use. It was a deterrent capability of calibrated, precise lethal power to deter and destroy evil. In the same way, India’s modern Sudarshan Chakra must not be about endless barrages but about precision mass that creates deterrence, secures the homeland, and preserves stability.
The future wars will be decided not by the side with the most missiles or the largest drone fleet, but by the side that can blend technology, timing, and doctrine into a coherent whole. By investing today in force design, digital backbones, training, and doctrinal clarity, India can ensure that tomorrow’s crises are met with readiness rather than improvisation
Wars of the future will be decided not by the side with the most missiles or the largest drone fleet, but by the side that can blend technology, timing, and doctrine into a coherent whole. Mission Sudarshan Chakra is the opportunity to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. By investing today in force design, digital backbones, training, and doctrinal clarity, India can ensure that tomorrow’s crises are met with readiness rather than improvisation.
The Prime Minister’s announcement has, therefore, provided more than a new mission. It has given India a narrative that binds together cultural inspiration and strategic necessity. The Sudarshan Chakra of mythology was a symbol of divine intervention. The Sudarshan Chakra of modern India must be a symbol of national preparedness. In a world where adversaries are integrating deep strike capabilities, India cannot rely on fragmented strengths. It must shape the battlespace before it is shaped by others. Mission Sudarshan Chakra is the path to that future.
The author, a PVSM, AVSM, VSM has had an illustrious career spanning nearly four decades. A distinguished Armoured Corps officer, he has served in various prestigious staff and command appointments including Commander Independent Armoured Brigade, ADG PP, GOC Armoured Division and GOC Strike 1. The officer retired as DG Mechanised Forces in December 2017 during which he was the architect to initiate process for reintroduction of Light Tank and Chairman on the study on C5ISR for Indian Army. Subsequently he was Consultant MoD/OFB from 2018 to 2020. He is also a reputed defence analyst, a motivational speaker and prolific writer on matters of military, defence technology and national security. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily carry the views of Raksha Anirveda
