As Russia, US and China actively engage in building aerodynamically manoeuverable hypersonic weapons, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has directed DRDO to begin inching towards developing arsenals that can assist India in maintaining a minimum credible deterrence against adversaries.
The minister conveyed this while speaking at a DRDO event. Highlighting the growing robustness of ballistic missile defence systems, RM Rajnath Singh said, “..Ballistic missile defence are getting robust day by day. So, in order to maintain our minimum credible deterrence, we should quickly think about developing hypersonic cruise missiles. It will be a revolutionary step in our defence sector and we all have to put our efforts into it.”
Testing the HSTDV
In line with such a direction, India is preparing to carry out another test of its hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle (HSTDV) that uses scramjet engine, by early next year, say media reports. The HSTDV was first tested in September 2020. The hypersonic vehicle serves as an important building block in making long range hypersonic weapons, which will become a reality in at least another four-five years.
Hypersonic Weapons
Hypersonic weapons are manoeuverable (easy to move and direct) weapons that can either be a glide vehicle launched or a scramjet-powered cruise missile. These weapons can fly at speeds of Mach 5, i.e. five times the speed of sound.
– The speed of sound is Mach 1
– Speeds upto Mach 5 fall in the “Supersonic” category
– Speeds above Mach 5 fall in the “Hypersonic” category
These weapons fly within the atmosphere and have an ability to manoeuvre midway. This, combined with their high speed, makes it hard for the opponent entities to detect and intercept them. It becomes difficult for radars and air defence systems to spot these weapons until they are already very close to the targets.
At the event, the Defence Minister also formally handed over to the armed forces an indigenous anti-drone ‘system smart anti-airfield weapon’ (SAAW), modular bridge and advanced chaff variants.
