In the modern battlefield arenas, timelines matter as much as the technology itself. With the Asia-Pacific being the epicentre of great power rivalries and South Asia facing India’s aggressive designs, Pakistan has been at par with modern technological trends.
India, in contrast, continued to rely on numbers and false flag tactics instead of skill and capability development. Its modern weapons, acquired from external partners, remain poorly integrated. Its human resources live under the shadow of false pride.
However, the May 2025 war against Pakistan and India’s humiliating defeat has been a long-overdue wake-up call for the country’s military and political forces.
After India’s failed Operation Sindoor and Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) excellent employment of multidomain operations (MDO) resulting in several Indian aircraft losses, Prime Minister Modi announced Mission Sudarshan Chakra, touted as India’s “Shield and Sword” on 15 August 2025.
The project aims to integrate cyber, cognitive, and aerospace elements into a unified network capable of countering aerial threats and is set to be completed by 2035. The major components include the expansion of India’s Integrated Air Defence into a multi-layered air and missile defence shield, a fused network of radars, satellites, and directed energy weapons, a centralised yet distributed command and control network, and the building of new missile capabilities across different ranges.
To regain the confidence of the Indian public, Prime Minister Modi also announced that this project aims at protecting not just military bases, but also other critical infrastructure, including nuclear power plants, religious sites, railways, hospitals, and population centres.
However, covering the area of 3,287,263 sq km from the Himalayas in the north to coastal towns in the south with missile defence shields and weapons sounds like nothing more than an exaggerated political promise.
Analysts are calling Mission Sudarshan Chakra identical to Israel’s Iron Dome and US Golden Dome-like systems, envisaging a modern, comprehensive, networked defence shield expanding across strategic and civilian assets.
However, unlike traditional defence systems, this mission does not only aim at enhancing India’s deterrence but also its offensive capabilities, allowing precision strikes in addition to neutralising incoming missiles.
The PAF cyber force targeted 100 Indian organisations with 4,400 information and communication technology (ICT) elements, achieving an ICT destruction score of 67–0
Interestingly, India aspires for Sudarshan Chakra to counter hypersonic and stealth platforms — something that even Israel’s and the United States’ most advanced defence systems are not yet capable of.
In fact, the US-Israel war on Iran has demonstrated the ineffectiveness of high-end missile defence systems against projectiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, raising questions about their cost-benefit proportions.
Other than that, the mission faces several challenges, especially with respect to coordination and integration.
A unified network of ground, naval, and aerospace assets would require close and strong coordination between the three services (Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force), paramilitary forces, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), private industry, and civilian agencies.
Bureaucratic challenges and internal competition within the military are likely to delay development and implementation.
Moreover, technologies such as directed energy weapons, long-range interceptors, and hypersonic vehicles are quite complex and time-consuming.
Building these capabilities individually and consolidating them together in such a short span of time would be nothing less than an engineering marvel.
Additionally, the cost and resources required to build this magnitude of an integrated defensive and offensive system require huge investments, sustained political effort, and budgetary planning.
These are the very areas where India faces significant hurdles given its strong opposition and expanding population.
What is more challenging than all the above-discussed aspects is that the goal India has set for 2035, the PAF has already demonstrated it in Marka-e-Haq under the leadership of Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu.
PAF’s unified command networks and aerospace assets came together to form a kill chain, resulting in India's loss of four Rafales, a MiG-29, a Mirage-2000, a Su-30, and a Heron UAV.
Additionally, two S-400 batteries were destroyed, as well as India’s air bases, BrahMos storage sites, radar systems, and the Bernala command and control centre, which were significantly damaged.
As part of this MDO, Pakistan also launched cyber attacks on Indian government departments and energy infrastructure, effectively crippling 70 per cent of its power grids.
The PAF cyber force targeted 100 Indian organisations with 4,400 information and communication technology (ICT) elements, achieving an ICT destruction score of 67–0.
This is the very kind of multidomain operation that India is seeking to achieve under Mission Sudarshan Chakra.
So, while Pakistan moves ahead with evolving technologies, India continues to perfect its existing capabilities, which would only result in the waste of entire planning and resources as threats and systems evolve.
As we commemorate a year of Marka-e-Haq’s success, it stands evident that the timely integration and employment of systems, not numbers, define the balance of power in modern strategic environments.
The challenge for India is not simply technological but psychological and strategic.
Pakistan’s demonstrated capability has strengthened its deterrence posture by shaping perceptions of its readiness and resolve across the world.
In contrast, India’s aspirational frameworks seem to be an attempt at catching up with its adversaries.
The real dilemma for India is to ensure that its systems stay relevant as Pakistan continues to further its developments at par with future-centric technological and warfare trends.