'Golden Dome' air defence system will be India's shield and sword: CDS Gen Chauhan

India is preparing a powerful new air defence system that integrates multiple components—including missiles and radars—to create a comprehensive ‘shield’ against enemy threats, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday.

“It will act as both ‘a shield and a sword’, and will be indigenous… the target is to have it ready in ten years,” said the CDS. He referred to it as the ‘Golden Dome’, possibly in reference to Israel’s Iron Dome air-defence system.

Gen Chauhan was delivering the keynote address at ‘Ran Samwad’ (Conversation about Warfare), a two-day (August 26–27) brainstorming seminar hosted by the Army War College here, themed ‘Impact of Technology on Warfare’.

The new system aims to develop robust infrastructure and processes for the detection, acquisition, and neutralisation of enemy missiles, drones, and aircraft—using weapons and direct energy weapons.

Defence sources said the new air defence system would likely integrate assets such as satellites, along with radars capable of monitoring altitudes between 60-80 km, as most modern missiles ascend to certain altitudes and then take downward trajectory to hit targets.

The Armed Forces are also planning to integrate systems across ground, air, maritime, undersea, and space domains. Data would be networked to provide a common operational picture to commanders.

Artificial intelligence (AI), advanced computation, data analytics, and quantum technology would be used for analysis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address, had referred to the upcoming air defence system as ‘Sudarshan Chakra’. The CDS has now provided the military contours of this future system.

Meanwhile, Gen Chauhan said, “India is a peace-loving nation. But we cannot be pacifists. Peace without power is utopian.”

Speaking on Operation Sindoor, he called it a “modern conflict” and said, “We learned a number of lessons, some of which are under implementation.”

The two-day seminar is focused on examining the nature of future warfare. The CDS said contemporary warfare today is a kind of continuum of five Cs - competition, crisis, confrontation, conflict and combat.

The new matrix of victory are the speed and tempo of operations, he added.

The event aims to define needs of a technology-aided battle of future and also lay down conduct of joint operations by the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force (IAF). A few joint doctrines and a technology perspective and capability roadmap will also be released at the event.

The event will be a pioneering ‘tri-services’ discussion on war, warfare and warfighting. It is looking at convergence of ideas on strategy, innovation and national security.

The seminar aspires to evolve into a prominent forum for addressing global security challenges while reinforcing India’s security priorities.