India tests indigenous hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle
India currently has the ramjet-powered cruise missile BrahMos which was jointly developed with Russia
New Delhi, Jan 28: India tested its own hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle (HSTDV) powered by a scramjet engine.
The development comes amidst the ongoing race among Russia, China and the US to manufacture manoeuvrable hypersonic weapons which fly over five times the speed of sound.
The indigenous HSTDV could in the future serve as a critical building block for hypersonic weapons with speeds over Mach 5 reports said. The report while citing sources said that the test was conducted at the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast on Friday afternoon.
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The ToI report also said that the initial launch and take off was successful. However there are some question marks on the subsequent performance of the scramjet engine of the HSTDV for which a detailed analysis of the data would need to be done.
The first test of the HSTDV had failed in June 2019 but the second one in September 2020 was successful. The scramjet powered HSTDV flew for 22-23 seconds at Mach 6 after the separation from the launch vehicle of the rocket motor of an Agni-I ballistic missile at 30km altitude.
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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had directed the DRDO in December 2021 to move swiftly towards the development of such arsenal to maintain the nation's minimum credible deterrence against adversaries.
The defence minister made the remarks after China tested a nuclear-capable missile carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle and warhead in July the same year.
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Both China and Russia are regarded to be ahead of the US in designing aerodynamically manoeuverable hypersonic weapons to be used with nuclear warheads.
The Indian armed forces have the conventional ramjet-powered BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, which fly at Mach 2.8 speed. This was jointly developed with Russia The strike range has been enhanced from the original 290 km to 450 km.