DRDO successfully flight-tests India’s first long-range hypersonic missile

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully flight-tested India’s first long-range hypersonic missile, which has a strike range of over 1,500 km

The flight test was carried out from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) off the Odisha coast on Saturday (16 November).

According to a DRDO release, the missile is designed to carry a range of payloads over distances exceeding 1,500 km for the armed forces.

The performance validation of the missile through various tracking systems deployed at different locations, including ships, confirmed that the missile functioned as planned.

Flight data obtained from down range ship stations confirmed that the missile successfully carried out terminal manoeuvres and final impact with high degree of accuracy.

The missile has been developed by DRDO labs at the APJ Abdul Kalam Missile complex, Hyderabad with support from various other DRDO labs and industry partners.

Senior scientists of DRDO and officers of the armed forces were present during the flight-test.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh called the flight-test of the country’s first hypersonic missile a historic achievement. He congratulated DRDO, armed forces and the industry for the success of the indigenous hypersonic missile technology.

Hypersonic missile move at more than 5 times the speed of sound (Mach-5), which include Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGV) and Hypersonic Cruise Missiles (HCM).

HGVs are launched from a rocket before it starts a gliding path to reach the intended target while HCMs have air-breathing high-speed engines or ‘scramjets’ that help to hit the target.

The hypersonic missile tests comes days after DRDO successfully tested a sub-sonic 1,000-km Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile (LRLACM).