‘India is proud’: DRDO Successfully tested Hypersonic Missile(HSDTV)
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Monday congratulated the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for successfully flight testing the indigenously developed Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV).
He said that this technology is a landmark achievement towards realising PM’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India).
“The @DRDO_India has today successfully flight tested the Hypersonic Technology Demontrator Vehicle using the indigenously developed scramjet propulsion system. With this success, all critical technologies are now established to progress to the next phase,” Singh said on Twitter.
“I congratulate to DRDO on this landmark achievement towards realising PM’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,” he said in subsequent tweet.
The HSTDV is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft for hypersonic speed flight, it can cruise at a speed of mach 6 and move up to an altitude of 32.5 km (20 miles) in 20 seconds, according to the government.
Besides its utility for long-range cruise missiles of the future, the dual-use technology will have multiple civilian applications also. It can be used for launching satellites at low cost too, news agency PTI quoted a government official as saying.
The HSTDV can move up to an altitude of 32.5 km in 20 seconds and once it is achieved successfully, India will enter a select club of countries that have such technology.
The HSTDV cruise vehicle is mounted on a solid rocket motor, which will take it to a required altitude, and once it attains certain mach numbers for speed, the cruise vehicle will be ejected out of the launch vehicle. Subsequently, the scramjet engine will be ignited automatically.
HSTDV is a very different vehicle with different set of configurations. HSTDV will fly upto Mach 6.5 whereas BrahMos-2 has lesser RCS nd will fly upto Mach-9 nd beyond. And this new heat-resistant material hasn’t been developed with Russian assistance.
It took us almost 5 years to develop this new material and everything was done at IISc-Bangalore with 100% indigenous in-house research. IISc-Bangalore had signed an MoU with BrahMos Aerospace Ltd in 2011, under which the Indians were supposed to make the thermal heat-resistant material nd guidance systems whereas the Russians were supposed to design the propulsion system of the missile.
A hypersonic missile with a scramjet engine at Mach 20 plus is so indefensible .And it has tremendous range extension utility. For instance an Agni-5 with a hypersonic last stage will extend its range well beyond intercontinental distances.
Source:- Hindustan Times
