India rockets into elite club at Mach 6

India on Monday became the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to successfully flight test a hypersonic vehicle that can fly at a speed of 6 Mach — six times the speed of the sound.

The successful demonstration will open up doors for the development of advanced long-range missiles with high manoeuvrability and a futuristic reusable space-plane for launching satellites at low cost.

The hypersonic technology demonstration vehicle (HSTDV) from the Defence Research and Development Organisation was launched at 11.03 hours from Wheeler Island, off the coast of Odisha.

Hypersonic vehicles are those that can fly with a speed of more than 5 Mach. Since such vehicles can’t take off with “zero velocity”, they need assistance in the form of a rocket that can take them to a certain altitude and help them reach a threshold velocity, when the hypersonic technology powered by a scramjet engine takes over.

Missiles with hypersonic speed and manoeuvrability are on every country’s wish list because of their ability to penetrate all types of existing missile defence shields.

The DRDO used an Agni solid fuel rocket to ferry the HSTDV to an altitude of 30 km, where the cruise vehicle was separated from the rocket and the air “breathing” (intake) happened as planned to propel the platform to reach a velocity of 6 Mach (nearly 2 km per sec).

The platform flew for its intended schedule of 20 seconds before falling into the sea. The time was enough for DRDO scientists to capture the data needed to improve upon the platform.

“The critical events like fuel injection and auto ignition of scramjet demonstrated technological maturity. The scramjet engine performed in a textbook manner,” an official said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO over the successful test-flight, calling it a "landmark achievement". DRDO chief G Satheesh Reddy also congratulated the team for their contributions.

Last June, defence scientists made their maiden attempt to test the HSTDV, but the test failed as the rocket did not reach the desired altitude.