India's Hypersonic Mission: A Race for the Future of Weaponry

India's got its eyes on a seriously powerful upgrade to its missile arsenal – hypersonic weapons. These bad boys fly at least five times the speed of sound (that's crazy fast!) and can do things that make old-school defense systems sweat.

India's already shown they can make powerful missiles with the BrahMos, a supersonic cruise missile they built with Russia's help. Now, they're working on the BrahMos-II, a hypersonic version that's basically like the original on steroids. It'll fly way faster, reach way farther (we're talking 1,500 kilometers), and use an advanced type of engine called a scramjet.

Of course, building something that moves at Mach 6 isn't exactly a walk in the park. India's been doing a ton of testing, and their Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) is the star of the show. In 2020, this little powerhouse flew at six times the speed of sound for almost half a minute – a major win for made-in-India tech. Even though there were some hiccups with earlier tests, this success shows they're on the right track.

But here's the thing: It sounds like the BrahMos-II project has hit a few snags lately, with some tests not going quite as planned. Plus, figuring out how to shrink this hypersonic tech into missiles small enough to actually use is a major headache.

India's not giving up, though. They're reportedly cozying up to Russia to get their hands on some tech secrets from the 3M22 Zircon (a wicked fast Russian hypersonic missile). Think of it as a shortcut to speed up their own BrahMos-II development. And those sweet HSTDV tests? They prove India's dead serious about building its own hypersonic tech from the ground up.

It might take a while (their 2025 deadline seems a bit optimistic), but one thing's for sure: hypersonic missiles are the future of warfare. They're so fast and unpredictable that current missile defenses struggle to stop them. If India cracks this code, it'll be a huge deal for their military muscle.

 

[Pink Panther]

It is quiet obvious, which defense item made by any of the DPSU’s are delivered on time.

 

[Kira]

I believe it's time for India to go solo here,as the Russians will be either unwilling or unable to sell India the Zicron or its tech for Brahmos-ll for various reasons.

 

[desigandu]

Russia will not give us Zircon technology...We should develop our own scramjet and hybrid ramjet-scramjet propulsion for hypersonic cruise missiles.

 

[charminar_waale_ismail_bhai]

Hypersonic is currently a bleeding edge technology. Nobody getsbit right the first time, specially considering our Government's habit of underfunding strategic projects.

 

[Ysmir Rewari]

For the first time India is on a level playing field with West in new-age technologies like Hypersonic missiles. Hopefully we will catch up in Radar-IR-stealth aircrafts, UAVs, DEWs, and jet-engine tech in this decade as well.

 

[Parthasarathi DasGupta]

India is waiting for this Zircon missile technology since 2012. Russia, won't share this technology under pressure from China. However, our armchair strategists are failed to understand that. It's now obvious, Russia won't supply any new military technology, without consulting China. Let's accept it.

 

[Ayyadurai Namasivayam]

Technology transfer issues are affecting our defence preparedness. Developing scramjet technology is very very difficult. India cannot do on its own. Still we are not in a position to develop brahmos engines even it entered service 20 years back. Our UAV programs are completely a failure. For subsonic cruise missile also we are facing lot of challenges
. Countries like turkey and Iran have succeeded in uavs and cruise missiles.

 

[Superpower Bharat]

Technology transfer issues are affecting our defence preparedness. Developing scramjet technology is very very difficult. India cannot do on its own. Still we are not in a position to develop brahmos engines even it entered service 20 years back. Our UAV programs are completely a failure. For subsonic cruise missile also we are facing lot of challenges
. Countries like turkey and Iran have succeeded in uavs and cruise missiles.

STAR missile will be our Brahmos

 

[kumar]

Any cutting edge technology development may face challenges. We have to just persist with it.

 

[Hari Sud]

Hypersonic is currently a bleeding edge technology. Nobody getsbit right the first time, specially considering our Government's habit of underfunding strategic projects.

Thank you for educating the critics.

 

[Sandeep]

India is developing the HSTDV missile which is a 100% indigenous hypersonic missile which is now showing some progress after a few earlier versions failed. India isn't going to abandon designing and developing our own hypersonic missile but we aren't going to develop it by using any Russian technology or engine. This article is absolutely fake news.

Also the Brahmos company currently aren't designing and developing the Brahmos 2 with a Russian engine and technology which would make it very expensive but they are also negotiating with them on the possibility of using that engine. Russia and Brahmos also want India to mostly fund developing the Brahmos 2 missile but its best we develop it indigenously without relying on foreign countries for expensive technology, parts, maintenance, repairs and weapons for the next 40 years.

 

[Rinku Pandey]

For the first time India is on a level playing field with West in new-age technologies like Hypersonic missiles. Hopefully we will catch up in Radar-IR-stealth aircrafts, UAVs, DEWs, and jet-engine tech in this decade as well.

Level playing field with Hypersonic missiles? Who told you that?

 

[kumar]

What happened to Shauria? It was tested in 2008 itself. It reached Mach 5 speed in 2008.

 

[Pad UwU]

I believe it's time for India to go solo here,as the Russians will be either unwilling or unable to sell India the Zicron or its tech for Brahmos-ll for various reasons.

Why would the Russian sell their zircon hypersonic missile technology when we are not ordering them for a thousand's of units???? Neither it's JV brahmos ii when it was said that India will be trying to solo developing the hypersonic engine to evade any western countries sanctions because of Russian technology so it's more likeable a indianize version is better for alternative thru some technical knowledge support/input by Russian scientist/engineers.... It was never mentioned/announced in other articles that Russian would transfer a Russian technology from it as far as I can remember 🙃🧐🤔

Or are you one of those delululandia comrades of our Bharatiya movement 😹😹😹 stop too much obsession of make in India bruh it's a toxic mindset 😺

 

[Pad UwU]

Technology transfer issues are affecting our defence preparedness. Developing scramjet technology is very very difficult. India cannot do on its own. Still we are not in a position to develop brahmos engines even it entered service 20 years back. Our UAV programs are completely a failure. For subsonic cruise missile also we are facing lot of challenges
. Countries like turkey and Iran have succeeded in uavs and cruise missiles.

Because we are not paying enough for technology that was perfected by the country origin... It's like we are scamming them LMAO... Same goes when they scamming us in some ways, but definitely we benefitted from it because we studied it until we gets it's nook's and crannies

 

[Aayush Pratap]

Missing Deadlines is a DRDO speciality. What's the fuss all about? 😸