Asia Defense | Security | South Asia

Indian Joint Air Defense Doctrine: Implications for South Asian Stability

In the South Asian strategic environment, even defensive measures can generate negative outcomes.

An Advanced Air Defence (AAD) endo-atmospheric interceptor missile, being integrated at the Programme Air Defence ABM development facility at Research Centre Imarat.

India’s joint air defense doctrine was released on May 29 by Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan, a day before his retirement. 

The launch of doctrine in the aftermath of the May 2025 crisis, which India called “Operation Sindoor” and Pakistan refers to as “Marka-e-Haq,” reflects the importance New Delhi attaches to integrated air and missile defense in an era of non-contact warfare. 

The doctrine reflects India’s growing focus on adapting its military posture to strengthen its preparedness for limited conventional conflicts and to enhance synergy among its tri-services. The doctrine was also unveiled within a year of  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of the Sudarshan Chakra initiative. The initiative aims to develop an Iron Dome-like structure protecting critical civilian infrastructure, strategic assets, and military installations across India. However, the pursuit of a robust defensive architecture by New Delhi would carry negative implications for South Asian strategic stability, particularly in the context of future crises with Pakistan.

The Joint Indian Air Defense Doctrine is part of a series of joint doctrines issued by the Headquarters Integrated Defense Staff to further institutionalize tri-service integration and joint warfighting. Over the past few years, India has unveiled joint doctrines related to multi-domain operations, cyberspace operations, amphibious operations, special forces operations, and airborne and heliborne operations. 

The objective of these doctrinal updates is to establish integrated operational concepts, enhance interoperability standards and strengthen joint planning mechanisms across the tri-services. A doctrine is another stepping stone in the formation of the theater command project. India has pursued “jointness” and “integrated theater command” since the establishment of the post of CDS in 2020. Doctrinal harmonization is a pre-requisite for theaterization as integrated commands need common concepts of operations and shared command-and-control frameworks to function effectively. Thus, the joint air defense doctrine would serve as a doctrinal foundation for future theater-level air defense operations. 

The doctrine is focused on developing an integrated and layered air defense architecture capable of countering a wide-spectrum of threats, including drones, loitering munitions, precision-guided weapons, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and saturation attacks. The doctrine places emphasis on developing a synchronized “kill-web” architecture designed to compress decision-making timelines and link tracking systems with weapons across all domains. Drawing on the lessons from recent conflicts around the world, and also from May 2025 crisis between India and Pakistan, the doctrine reflects an increasing effort to develop the capability to detect, track, and neutralize large volumes of incoming aerial threats. 

The Indian joint air defense doctrine will also play an integral role in the broader vision of Mission Sudarshan Chakra – the Indian Iron Dome. Mission Chakra, announced in August 2025, is an initiative to develop an indigenous layered missile defense shield capable of protecting both civilian and military infrastructures. The project aims to integrate advanced surveillance, interception, and counter-strike capabilities for swift........

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