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“Cold Start” Drone & Counter-Drone Exercise: India’s Big Move to Strengthen Air Defence
India is preparing to conduct its largest ever drone and counter-drone military exercise, named Cold Start, in the first week of October 2025, as part of an ambitious plan to bolster its air‐defence capabilities. The announcement signals a sharper focus on unmanned aerial systems (UAS), counter-UAS technologies, and rapid response strategies in light of recent regional conflicts.
Background: Why the Emphasis Now
The decision for Cold Start is seen in the shadow of India’s May 2025 confrontation with Pakistan, during which unmanned aerial systems were used extensively. The confrontation exposed vulnerabilities in detecting, tracking, and neutralizing such aerial threats.
In response, Indian military leadership and defence planning bodies have recognised that future conflicts will almost certainly include UAS both for surveillance and attacks. As result, accelerating development of robust counter-drone measures is now a high priority. The exercise is intended not just to test existing capabilities but to simulate real-world scenarios witnessed earlier in the year to identify gaps.
What “Cold Start” Will Test & Involve
Key features of Cold Start include:
- Scope & Participants: It will be the largest domestic drone war game India has held to date. The exercise will feature both offensive and defensive drone operations, with emphasis on counter-drone systems. All three services (Army, Navy, Air Force) are likely to participate. Observers from defence industry and research communities will be present.
- Technologies Under Test: Various drones of different classes will be flown, and multiple counter-UAS systems will be tested — this might include detection (radars, sensors), tracking, jamming, electronic and physical neutralisation of drones. Key elements will be stress-testing integrated systems in simulated drone warfare scenarios.
- Link to Broader Systems: Cold Start is not just an isolated drill. It forms a crucial building block in India’s longer-term air defence vision, especially Mission Sudarshan Chakra, which aims to build a multi-layered, indigenous defence shield by 2035. Counter-UAS and drone technologies tested during Cold Start are expected to feed into the baseline capabilities of Sudarshan Chakra.
Sudarshan Chakra: India’s Longer-Term Air Defence Plan
To understand Cold Start fully, it is essential to see how it complements Mission Sudarshan Chakra. Here are its main features:
- Sudarshan Chakra is envisioned as India’s own comprehensive air and missile defence system, taking inspiration from models like Israel’s Iron Dome. The goal is to protect critical civilian, military, and strategic infrastructure from aerial threats including drones, missiles, hypersonic weapons, aircraft, etc.
- In recent months, there have been successful tests of integrated air defence systems: The DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organisation) conducted maiden flight tests of the Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS), combining short and very short range air defence missiles (QRSAM, VSHORADS) and directed energy weapons (lasers) to engage drone and UAS targets. This shows tangible progress toward multi-layer integration.
- Under Project Kusha, a component of Sudarshan Chakra, India plans to develop long-range interceptor missiles (M1, M2, M3) with progressively greater ranges (≈150 km, 250 km, 350 km respectively), plus sensors, command-control, and networked detection systems. Trials are slated to begin in coming years.
Strategic Implications
The decision to run Cold Start has several strategic implications:
- Deterrence and Signaling
By publicly announcing and conducting an exercise at this scale, India is signalling to regional adversaries that it is not only modernising its aerial defence but is ready to respond to evolving threats. The fact that it is targeting drone and counter-drone warfare underscores that future conflicts will heavily involve unmanned systems, and India does not intend to lag. - Capability Validation & Learning
Simulating scenarios similar to those encountered in May will allow Indian forces to test real-age readiness: how fast detection to neutralization happens, coordination between services, decision-making, command and control, logistics of counter-UAS deployment, etc. Lessons from Cold Start will likely lead to changes in policy, procurement priorities, and may uncover weak points. - Boost to Indigenous Defence Ecosystem
With Sudarshan Chakra relying heavily on indigenous development (missiles, drones, sensors, directed energy weapons) and with DRDO, private industry, academia involved, Cold Start provides an opportunity to test home-grown systems and push for self-reliance. - Arms Race Dynamics
Indian officials have acknowledged that neighbouring countries are improving their drone and drone-countering capabilities too. There is a tacit recognition of a drone arms race in the region. By stepping up both testing and capability development, India seeks to maintain or gain leadership in this domain. - Risk Mitigation
Remote detection, false positives, drone swarm threats, low altitude flight — these are all complex challenges. Exercises like Cold Start help in stress-testing not just hardware but protocols, rules of engagement, legal/ethical dimensions, coordination across military, civilian agencies.
What This Means for India’s Defence Landscape
Overall, Cold Start represents a clear inflection point: India is no longer just reacting to external airborne threats; it is proactively building capability to shape its aerial domain. Key shifts include:
- More serious investment in unmanned systems — both offensive and defensive.
- Greater priority to counter-drone technologies, in detection, tracking, neutralization.
- Enhanced synergy among services (Army, Navy, Air Force) and integrating R&D, industry, academia.
- Clearer timeline and roadmap for a layered air defence shield (Sudarshan Chakra) that accepts drones, missiles, aircraft, and emerging aerial threats as central concerns.
Conclusion
As Cold Start gears up for early October 2025, it stands as more than just a military exercise. It’s a testbed, a demonstration, and a signal: that India is stepping up its game in aerial defence, particularly in unmanned aerial domain. Complemented by Sudarshan Chakra’s long-term vision, this exercise could mark a turning point in how India protects its airspace in an era of drones, hypersonics, and rapidly evolving threats.
If executed well, Cold Start might close important gaps revealed in past engagements and push India toward a more resilient, modern, and self-reliant air defence posture. Watch closely: what gets tested, what works, and what gets adapted will shape India’s capabilities for years to come.
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