India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on November 17, 2024 successfully completed the flight test of its maiden long-range hypersonic missile with a range of 1500km.
- The flight test was conducted from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, off Odisha coast.
- The missile is designed to carry various payloads for ranges greater than 1500km for all the services of Indian armed forces.
- This missile has been indigenously developed by the laboratories of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile complex, Hyderabad along with various other DRDO laboratories and industry partners.
Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV)
- DRDO has been pursuing hypersonic cruise missile technologies for sometime as part of its Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) programme and successfully tested a Mach 6 scramjet in June 2019 and September 2020.
- This test demonstrated the scramjet engine technology, a major breakthrough. In a scramjet engine, air goes inside the engine at supersonic speed and comes out at hypersonic speeds.
Hypersonic and Ballistic Missiles
- Hypersonic weapons are manoeuvrable weapons that can fly at speeds of at least Mach 5, five times the speed of sound. The speed of sound is Mach 1, and speeds above Mach and Mach 5 are supersonic and speeds above Mach 5 are hypersonic.
- Ballistic missiles, though travel much faster, follow a fixed trajectory and travel outside the atmosphere to re-enter only near impact.
- Hypersonic weapons travel within the atmosphere and can manoeuvre midway which combined with their high speeds makes their detection and interception extremely difficult. It means that radars and air defences cannot detect them till they are very close and have little time to react.
