Defence Minister Rajnath Singh described Saturday’s successful flight test of a long-range hypersonic missile from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast as a ‘major milestone’.
Rajnath Singh described the successful flight test of the long-range hypersonic missile as a historic occasion that placed India among the chosen nations capable of such important and sophisticated military technology.
“India has reached a significant milestone by successfully performing a flight test of a long-range hypersonic missile from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, off the coast of Odisha. This is a historic time, and this tremendous achievement has elevated our country into the ranks of select nations capable of such essential and complex military technology,” Singh wrote on X on Sunday, praising DRDO and the armed services.
This hypersonic missile is said to be capable of carrying a variety of payloads across a range of 1500 kilometers for all services of the Indian Armed Forces.
Indigenously developed by the laboratories of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex, Hyderabad along with various other DRDO laboratories and Industry Partners, the flight trial of this was carried out in the presence of senior scientists of DRDO and the Armed Forces.
Hypersonic weapons are those which are travel at hypersonic speed, defined as between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound or about 1 to 5 miles per second.
On November 12, DRDO conducted the maiden flight-test of Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile (LRLACM) from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur off the coast of Odisha from a mobile articulated launcher.
During this test, all sub-systems performed as per expectation and met the primary mission objectives, a PIB release said, adding that the missile performance was monitored by several range sensors like Radar, Electro Optical Tracking System and telemetry deployed by ITR at different locations to ensure complete coverage of the flight path.
The missile demonstrated its capability to perform various manoeuvres while flying at various altitudes and speeds. The missile is also equipped with advanced avionics and software to ensure better and reliable performance, the release said.
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Source: HT
