Sudarshan Chakra air-defence mission: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, August 15, 2025, used his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort to announce a big defence project that he says will help India protect itself from enemy attacks. He said the country will build its own air-defence system to guard important military and civilian places and to give a strong answer to any enemy threat.
The project is called “Sudarshan Chakra” and comes at a time when India faces security worries from both Pakistan and China. Modi also made it clear that India wants to rely less on foreign countries for defence equipment, saying the country should even make its own jet engines for fighter planes in the future.
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The Prime Minister did not give many details about how the Sudarshan Chakra system will work, but many defence experts believe it could be similar to Israel’s famous Iron Dome system, which is known for stopping missiles and rockets in all weather. This announcement comes just a few days after Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir reportedly hinted at targeting Indian assets like the Reliance refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, if tensions between the two countries turn into a military fight.
Modi said the new mission will aim to “neutralise enemy threat and enhance India’s offensive capabilities,” and connected the name to the mythological Sudarshan Chakra of Lord Krishna, showing how India can use its cultural heritage as inspiration for modern defence ideas, reports The Hindu.
Home-made jet engines
In his speech, Modi also urged India’s young innovators and engineers to design and make jet engines in the country so that India can have complete control over its own defence technology. His push for an indigenous jet engine comes at a time when a deal between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and American company GE Aerospace to make jet engines together has run into some trouble. GE Aerospace has also missed supply deadlines for engines that HAL needs for Tejas fighter jets, which has caused delays in delivering these planes to the Indian Air Force.
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India has been trying to build its own jet engine for decades. The Kaveri engine project, started about 35 years ago and approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security in 1989, was meant for India’s Light Combat Aircraft programme. The project has already cost over ₹2,035 crore but is still not completed. Modi’s remarks suggest that India will renew efforts to finish this work and avoid depending on foreign companies that can cause delays.
Operation Sindoor
Modi also praised Operation Sindoor, which was launched after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. The operation targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). He said this action showed how India can now act quickly and independently because it has its own Made-in-India weapons. Modi stressed that national security should never depend too much on other countries, and the success of
