How India’s hypersonic missile test puts China and Pakistan on alert

Taking a crucial step to bring India into the elite group of countries with hypersonic missiles in its military arsenal, the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) successfully flight tested the first missile long-range hypersonic from the country of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Island off the coast of Odisha.

With this milestone, India has entered a high-stakes global race, demonstrating its ability to innovate and develop indigenous solutions to meet the military challenges of the next generation. This achievement not only highlights the country’s growing technological prowess, but also strengthens its position as a key player in the changing landscape of modern warfare.

According to its developers, the Indian missile can be maneuvered in mid-flight and fly at nine times the speed of sound to evade enemy missile defense systems. It is designed to transport various payloads over distances exceeding 1,500 km.

However, India being a signatory to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), an international control regime which establishes regulations aimed at limiting the proliferation of missiles and missile technology, is required to follow its rules when deciding to the range of the missile.

Hypersonic missiles will strengthen India’s deterrence against its adversaries China and Pakistan. Hypersonic missiles are considered the next frontier in missile technology, delivering unprecedented speed, agility and strike precision. Unlike traditional ballistic missiles, they follow unpredictable flight paths, making them extremely difficult to detect and intercept.

“The missile was tracked by various range systems deployed in several areas. Flight data obtained from the ship’s downstream stations confirmed the successful terminal maneuvers and impact with a high degree of accuracy,” the DRDO announced on November 17 after the successful flight test.

Missile scientists say India has indigenously developed the technology to enable the hypersonic missile to take unpredictable trajectories and evade detection by interceptors.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, while congratulating scientists at the Hyderabad-based DRDO Missile Complex, described the flight test as a historic achievement that placed India in the group of selected nations with missile capabilities. military technologies as critical and advanced.

Russia and China are the only countries with operational hypersonic missiles. Even the United States is developing such a missile.

The Russian Avangard is a nuclear-capable hypersonic glider vehicle operational since 2019. It can reach speeds above Mach 20 (twenty times the speed of sound). The Tsirkon (Zircon) is a hypersonic cruise missile capable of hitting sea and land targets, traveling at Mach 8-9.

The Chinese DF-ZF is a hypersonic glider vehicle integrated with the DF-17 missile; it has been operational since 2020. The Starry Sky-2 is a prototype hypersonic cruise missile capable of reaching speeds of Mach 6. It is focused on regional domination.

In March 2022, the Russian military fired the Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missile to destroy a huge underground weapons depot in western Ukraine, making Moscow the first country to use hypersonic missiles in a real war.

The developers of the Indian hypersonic missile say it should be modeled on the Russian Zircon hypersonic missile. “India has joined a select group of countries and has indigenously developed technology capable of making the missile take an unpredictable trajectory and evade the detection of interceptors,” a defense official said.

In 2020, the DRDO had tested an air-breathing scramjet propulsion system, called the Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle or HSTDV. According to a defense official, during the HSTDV test, a speed of Mach 6 was achieved for 23 seconds. The HSTDV was launched atop an Agni ballistic missile booster, which propelled it to the desired altitude before releasing the hypersonic vehicle.

Dr G. Satheesh Reddy, former DRDO chief, termed the test flight of the hypersonic missile a “great success”. “Flying at hypersonic speeds at such a long range is a game changer,” he told INDIA TODAY, adding that the missile has multiple applications for all three wings of the armed forces. “It has significantly improved our capabilities,” he said.

The naval version of such a missile would give additional power to India’s attack capability as it could accurately strike enemy warships from long range.

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