NEW DELHI: In a major boost for India’s missile strike capabilities, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has said that it can develop a complete hypersonic cruise missile system in the next four to five years which will have the capability to strike its targets at speeds at least double than that of world’s present fastest BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.
The DRDO testfired the Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) on September 7 which is expected to lay the foundation for the development of a hypersonic cruise missile system.
Giving details of the HSTDV testfiring to ANI, DRDO chief Dr G Satheesh Reddy said the cruise missiles are the one which flies at a lower altitude.
“In that cruise missile, we have varieties called Subsonic cruise missile, Supersonic cruise missile and then hypersonic cruise missiles. The hypersonic cruise missiles are the one which actually travels at six times, seven times..eight times..more than that the speed of sound which is approximate about 300+ metre per second on the surface of the earth,” he said.
“This one what we have attempted has got a scramjet engine, which works at the hypersonic speed breathing the air in the atmosphere, taking the oxygen in the atmosphere and then burns it and that happens at the hypersonic speed,” he added.Read more…
