India successfully test flew its first long-range hypersonic missile with a range of 1,500 kilometers, the Defence Research and Development Organisation said in a statement on November 17, 2024.
The test, held one day before, from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast, marks a great step forward in India’s defense capabilities.
The missile is reportedly capable of carrying varied payloads for distances greater than 1,500 kilometers to cater to all armed forces in the country according to DRDO.
“The missile was tracked by a number of range systems established across multi-domains. The downrange flight data from the ship stations confirmed successful terminal maneuvers along with impact within high accuracies,” DRDO mentioned in a statement.
Defending India, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on X platform social media that, “India today stands at a major achievement point as it has accomplished its first successful flight of long-range hypersonic missiles, and it puts this nation into an elite bracket which possesses such advanced defense and military technologies.
The missile was developed indigenously at DRDO’s Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex in Hyderabad, collaborated with other DRDO labs and industry partners.
Hypersonic Missiles
Hypersonic weapons are designed to travel at a minimum speed of Mach 5, which is five times the speed of sound. They can maneuver in the atmosphere, which makes them hard to detect and intercept. Ballistic missiles have a fixed trajectory and return to the atmosphere at impact, whereas hypersonic missiles can change their course in mid-air, making reaction time for defense systems limited.
This programme is a part of India’s hypersonic missile development, which DRDO earlier achieved with its Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle. Some of the milestones included successful scramjet engine tests in 2019 and 2020 for sustaining combustion at hypersonic speed. DRDO validated such technologies as aerodynamic configurations for hypersonic maneuverability and high-temperature material characterization.
India is further developing a hypersonic version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which is a joint project with Russia, to further add to its hypersonic weapons arsenal.
India becomes part of an elite club of nations, consisting of the United States, Russia, and China, in advancing hypersonic weapons technology through this latest test.
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