The three interceptors under Project Kosha are all long-range surface-to-air missiles ready to eliminate any air threat towards India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Sudarshan Chakra or anti-ballistic missile shield mission is rapidly gaining momentum, with the DRDO expected to test-fire three interceptor missiles under Project Kosha from a range of 120 km to 400 km in the next 12 months.
On Thursday, DRDO conducted the first test firing of the Kusha M-1 interceptor missile with a range of 120 km off the coast of Odisha. This is followed by test firing of the M-2 interceptor missile, which has a range of up to 150 kilometers, and the M-3 interceptor missile, which has a range of up to 400 kilometers. Project Kosha was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security in May 2022, but the project took off after Operation Sindoor when Pakistan targeted India with as many as 1,000 shells. Neither the missiles nor the kamikaze drones were found to be a target in India and were successfully intercepted by the Akash Tir missile system.
The three interceptors under Project Kosha are all long-range surface-to-air missiles ready to eliminate any air threat towards India. The M-1, M-2 and M-3 interceptors, which will bridge the gap between India’s 80-km-range medium-range surface missiles and the S-400 air defense system, will form the backbone of India’s anti-ballistic missile system.
The Narendra Modi government has given the Kosha project top priority after Operation Sindoor and the Iran-US war showed that wars will only be fought using stand-off weapons like missiles and drones. Since February 28, Iran has launched thousands of drones and missiles against all Gulf states and Israel and has managed to hit targets despite anti-ballistic missile systems deployed by the United States, Israel and the Gulf states.
It was during Operation Op Sindoor that the Indian Armed Forces felt the need for LR-SAM to protect combat platforms and critical infrastructure. While the three interceptor missiles are part of the kinetic force used against enemy missiles and drones, Project Kosha is also about having long-range radars that can pick up cross-border enemy missile launches and prepare to neutralize the air threat.
Given the importance of anti-ballistic missile defence, India is looking forward to the fifth landing of the Russian-contracted S-400 system in November this year. Work to acquire five more S-400 systems from Russia under the procurement and path-finding deal has already begun, and regulatory approvals will follow soon with India purchasing more than 280 S-400 missiles from Russia as part of its inventory.
Since Operation Sindoor has not been cancelled, India is building up its long-range missile capability in case Pakistan again uses the terror card against India.
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor of Hindustan Times and one of India’s senior journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has reported extensively on India’s military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 Eastern Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terrorist attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the Pahalgam terror strike in 2025, along with several Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents. In the Kashmir Valley and throughout India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognized authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India’s nuclear program since the Bukhran II (Shakti Series) tests in May 1998, and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country’s expanding global outreach. He has also reported extensively on international conflicts and terrorism, with a particular focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi’s first interview with print media after becoming prime minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, and S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Confronting the Himalayas: Chinese Assertion, Indian Response (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded a joint Chevening-Wolfson Scholarship to Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subramaniam for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyzes (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Hindustan Times’ weekly YouTube show Point Blank on global geopolitics.Read more
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