India
Amid a global race, India tests its first hypersonic missile | India News – Times of India
The hypersonic missile, designed to carry various payloads over a range of more than 1,500 km, was “successfully tested” from Dr. Island on Saturday at 6:55 p.m. APJ Abdul Kalam off the coast of Odisha, a Defense Ministry official said.
The missile, which flew at a speed of Mach 6, was tracked by several standoff systems deployed in multiple domains. “The flight data obtained from ship stations below the range confirmed the successful terminal maneuvers and impact with a high degree of accuracy,” the official added.
Describing it as “a historic moment and an astonishing achievement”, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said the flight process has brought India into a group of select countries that have the capability to develop such “critical and advanced military technologies”.
Former DRDO chairman G Satheesh Reddy told TOI that the missile is “a game changer” with multiple applications in the Army, Navy and IAF. “A missile of this range at hypersonic speeds will give India a decisive advantage.”
The missile, with the speed of a ballistic missile and of course the maneuverability of a cruise missile, will need to be refined through several tests over the coming years before it is ready for production and deployment. The naval version will be aimed at destroying enemy warships with pinpoint precision at long ranges, an official said.
With their ability to defeat existing missile and air defense systems thanks to super-fast speeds, high maneuverability and low flight altitudes, hypersonic weapons have become a major focus for major military powers. The two main types of hypersonic weapons are cruise missiles, which are powered by air-breathing engines or “scramjets” throughout their flight, and “glide vehicles” that are launched atop ballistic missiles before gliding toward their targets at speeds above Mach 5.
China and Russia are ahead of the US in designing aerodynamically maneuverable hypersonic weapons for use with nuclear warheads. For example, in July 2021, China’s test of a nuclear-capable missile carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle and a nuclear warhead had sent shockwaves around the world.
In June 2019, DRDO tested one for the first time hypersonic technology demonstration vehicle (HSTDV), which would serve as a crucial building block in the development of long-range hypersonic weapons. But the flight test failed.
A second test in September 2020 was successful to the extent that the scramjet-powered “cruise vehicle” or HSTDV flew for 22-23 seconds at a speed of Mach 6 after separation of the “launch vehicle” from the solid rocket motor of an Agni-I ballistic missile at an altitude of 30 km. While another HSTDV test was conducted in January last year, much longer duration trials are needed on this front, as reported earlier by TOI.
In parallel, there was a plan to develop a hypersonic version of the already introduced conventional (non-nuclear) ramjet-powered supersonic cruise missiles of BrahMos, flying at a speed of Mach 2.8 with a range of 450 km, developed in collaboration with Russia. But this will be an expensive proposition and is not currently in the plans, an official said.
