Junput’s New Defence Frontier: India Turns to the Invisible Battlefield

A new and potentially significant chapter in India’s emerging defence technology architecture is taking shape along the coast of East Midnapore district where the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is set to establish a major project at Junput, near Contai.

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, announcing the proposed investment at an event in Salt Lake, said land was being provided to the DRDO for the project.

“The DRDO is undertaking a major project at Junput on the East Midnapore coast. I will provide details later,” he said.

The announcement assumes particular significance because Junput had earlier emerged as a potential defence-testing site. In 2024, work on a DRDO missile launch facility and associated flight-trial infrastructure at the location had reportedly been halted.

The proposed new project, however, points towards a very different—and increasingly consequential—dimension of modern warfare.

At its heart is SHIELD, a DRDO programme aimed at developing a high-power microwave evaluation system operating in the S-band. The objective is not merely to produce another weapon, but to create a controlled environment in which the effects of powerful microwave radiation on electronic systems can be measured, analysed and understood.

That distinction is crucial. Tomorrow’s battlefield may not always announce an attack with an explosion.

A high-power microwave system can affect electronic equipment through intense electromagnetic energy rather than conventional explosives, bullets or direct physical impact.

Radars, communications networks, sensors, control systems and other electronic equipment could potentially be disrupted or rendered ineffective when exposed to sufficiently powerful electromagnetic fields.

SHIELD is intended to help DRDO assess precisely how such effects occur—and, equally importantly, determine how resilient India’s own military systems are against them.

Sea beach at Junput

TDF to Push SHIELD

The programme has been taken up under the DRDO’s Technology Development Fund (TDF) which seeks to accelerate critical defence technologies through collaboration with domestic industry, technology companies and research institutions. Private technology firms are also being encouraged to participate in the SHIELD effort.

One of its key technological components is a high-power microwave system incorporating gallium nitride-based solid-state power amplifiers, a technology increasingly important in advanced high-power microwave applications. It can enable higher power generation while allowing systems to remain comparatively compact and efficient.

The proposed architecture is designed to operate in pulsed modes with variable duty cycles, enabling researchers to expose electronic systems to different microwave conditions and study their responses individually.

Controlled electromagnetic fields generated remotely could also be used to test the tolerance and survivability of military electronics.

The implications extend directly into the rapidly changing counter-drone battlefield.

Lessons from the US-Iran Conflict

Modern warfare is witnessing the proliferation of inexpensive small drones and increasingly sophisticated swarms. The sheer number of potential targets makes reliance solely on conventional missiles and guns expensive and operationally demanding.

Directed-energy and electronic means therefore offer an additional layer of defence. In fact, deadly strikes by Iran at some of the United States' crucial military bases in Jordan provide ample proof of this.

High-power microwave technology could eventually provide a means of disrupting the electronic architecture of drones, particularly in scenarios involving multiple simultaneous targets.

But its significance extends beyond drones. SHIELD could strengthen India’s capabilities in directed-energy technologies and electronic warfare—two domains in which future military superiority may increasingly be determined by who can disable the adversary’s electronics while keeping his own systems functioning.

It would be premature, however, to describe SHIELD itself as a finished battlefield weapon. At this stage, it is fundamentally an evaluation and experimental capability—a technological laboratory for determining the effectiveness, limitations and possible military applications of high-power microwave systems.

Its larger significance lies precisely there.

As warfare moves from the visible destruction of platforms towards the invisible disruption of networks, sensors and electronics, control of the electromagnetic spectrum is becoming as important as control of land, sea or air.

With SHIELD, India is seeking to understand that invisible battlefield—and, potentially, to secure an advantage on it.