India rockets to hypersonic missile club, joins the ranks of US, Russia

India on Monday joined the ranks of the hypersonic missile club by firing an indigenously-developed hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle (HSTDV). The system will power range missile systems and aerial platforms. This makes India the fourth country to successfully test a demonstrator vehicle, joining the ranks of US, Russia, and China.

Based on hypersonic propulsion technologies, the HSTDV has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The test was conducted by DRDO at 11.30 IST from APJ Abdul Kalam testing range in Odisha and lasted for five minutes.

This implies that the DRDO would be able to develop hypersonic missiles with a scramjet in the next five years. A hypersonic missile would be able to cover over two kilometres per second.

According to the DRDO, owing to this successful test, India has shown the capability to create complex technology to accentuate the growth of hypersonic vehicles in the coming times.

The officials added that the HSTDV can power cruise missiles and performs on scramjet engines, as opposed to the ramjet engines, which in turn, yields better results and more speed, reaching upto Mach 6, which is more than 7,000 kilometres per hour.

Besides military capabilities, the HSTDV may be used to launch satellites at a low-cost.

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO and wrote.

“I congratulate to DRDO on this landmark achievement towards realising the Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. I spoke to the scientists associated with the project and congratulated them on this great achievement. India is proud of them,” the defence minister said in a tweet.

Read the Vice President's message below.