India enters ‘select club’ after successful test fire of long-range hypersonic missile, Rajnath Singh hails feat 

India has successfully test fired a long-range hypersonic missile from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on November 17. The missile is designed to carry various payloads for ranges greater than 1,500 km for the Armed Forces.

The missile has been indigenously developed by the laboratories of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile complex, Hyderabad along with various other DRDO laboratories and industry partners. 

Singh described the test-firing of the missile as a historic moment as it put India in the group of select nations having capabilities to develop such critical technologies. 

“India has achieved a major milestone by successfully conducting flight trial of long-range hypersonic missile from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, off-the-coast of Odisha,” the defence minister wrote on X. 

“This is a historic moment and this significant achievement has put our country in the group of select nations having capabilities of such critical and advanced military technologies,” he added. 

Singh congratulated the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the armed forces and the industry for what he described as a “stupendous” achievement. 

India is the fourth nation after Russia, the US and China to demonstrate hypersonic capability.

In February 2024, IIT Kanpur inaugurated India’s first hypersonic test facility which possesses a testing platform for cruise missiles with speeds up to 10 km/s. It was funded by the Department of Science and Technology and Aeronautical Research and Development Board under the DRDO and will enable simulations of hypersonic conditions for upcoming space and defence projects, such as the BrahMos-II programme.

What is a hypersonic missile?

A hypersonic weapon is a weapon capable of travelling at hypersonic speed, defined as between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound or about 1 to 5 miles per second (1.6 to 8.0 km/s). This makes them very hard to track and destroy. 

There are two types: Hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV) are launched from a rocket, similar to regular ballistic missiles, before gliding to a target, whereas Hypersonic cruise missiles are powered throughout their flight via air-breathing engines called Scramjets, after acquiring their target.

Hypersonic weapons can bypass most traditional defence systems, and their detection poses a serious challenge. For example, terrestrial-based radar cannot detect them until late in their flight. The threat is only bolstered by the fact that they are capable of carrying both traditional and nuclear warheads.