Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday that India successfully test-fired a long-range hypersonic missile from an island off its east coast.
If Singh’s assessment is correct, it would be India’s first successful test of an advanced hypersonic weapon.
Singh called the test, conducted on Saturday from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha state, a “major milestone.”
“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 said.
“I congratulate Team DRDO India, our Armed Forces, and the industry for this stupendous achievement,” he added. DRDO is the Defense Research and Development Organization, India’s primary military research agency.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island, known as Wheeler Island until it was renamed in 2015, is the location of an important missile testing facility. Dr. Kalam was an aerospace engineer who served as India’s 11th president from 2002 to 2007. He died in the same year the island was renamed. He strongly advocated India developing both its advanced military technology and nuclear weapons.
Hypersonic missiles are capable of flying at very high rates of speed at low altitudes, making them theoretically impossible to intercept, or even detect until they have come dangerously close to reaching their targets. The minimum speed for a true hypersonic missile is Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, at low altitude and with maneuvering capability to evade missile defenses.
As Singh indicated, very few countries have tested or deployed reliable hypersonic missile technology. China shocked U.S. intelligence agencies by successfully testing a nuclear-capable low-orbit hypersonic missile in October 2021.
The U.S. and Russia have both developed hypersonic weapons. Russia was the first country in the world to deploy hypersonic missiles in combat, launching them against targets in Ukraine.
North Korea claims to have tested them, but the performance of its test weapons fell short of true hypersonic capability. The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen claim to have attacked Israel with a hypersonic missile in September. Japan, Australia, France, and Germany have all conducted hypersonic research.
DRDO said the missile India tested on Saturday is capable of carrying significant payloads up to 1,500 kilometers, or 930 miles. DRDO claimed flight data “confirmed the successful terminal maneuvers and impact with a high degree of accuracy.”
India first tested a hypersonic missile in 2019, but the test was considered a failure. A second test in 2020 got the missile up to Mach 6, but it could only hold that speed for about 22 seconds.
Once its hypersonic missiles are perfected, DRDO plans to develop a hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called the HGV-202F, which will be able to carry hypersonic missiles for up to 5,500 kilometers before launching them.
