With HSTDV Technology, India Now Enters The Elite Club Of Hypersonic Regime; Here's Why It Matters

CIOReviewIndia Team | Tuesday, 08 September 2020, 04:00 IST

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With HSTDV Technology, India Now Enters The Elite Club Of Hypersonic Regime; Here's Why It MattersThe DRDO Chairman, G. Satheesh Reddy, said, "It’s a major technological breakthrough in the country. This testing paves the way for the development of more critical technologies, materials, and hypersonic vehicles. This puts India in a selected club of nations who have demonstrated this technology."

The Indian Prime Minister, Hon’ble, Shri Narendra Modi, on Monday, congratulated the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) for the successful flight testing of HSTDV. He said fewer countries have such capability.

Launched using a proven solid rocket motor, the hypersonic cruise vehicle was elevated to an altitude of 30 kms, where the aerodynamic heat shields got separated at hypersonic Mach number. The cruise vehicle separated from the launch vehicle and the air intake opened as per plans. The hypersonic combustion sustained and the cruise vehicle went on to the desired flight path, attaining a velocity of six times the speed of sound! Nearly 2 km/sec for more than 20 seconds.

This is a successful demonstration of the hypersonic air-breathing scramjet technology by the Defence Research and Development Organisation. It creates a path for development of hypersonic cruise missiles and vehicles in the future.

The Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister) Rajnath Singh tweeted – “With this success, all critical technologies are now established to progress to the next phase.”

According to a source, the vehicle reached a very high temperature, of almost 1000-2000 degrees Celsius, during re-entre. It is claimed as the biggest achievement after Anti-Satellite Test. DRDO said, “The scramjet engine performed in a textbook manner. It worked at high dynamic pressure and at very high temperature.”

After the successful testing, complex technologies like aerodynamic configuration of hypersonic manoeuvres, use of scramjet propulsion for ignition and sustained combustion at hypersonic flow, thermo-structural characterisation of high-temperature materials and separation mechanism at hypersonic velocities get validated.

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