By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, November 17, 2024: India has joined the elite group of states with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Saturday conducting a successful flight test of long range hypersonic missile from the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast. Hypersonic weapons are those which can travel at hypersonic speed, defined as between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound or about 1 to 5 miles per second.

Defence minister, Rajnath Singh called the successful flight test of the long range hypersonic missile a historic moment which put India in the group of select nations having capabilities of such critical and advanced military technologies.

“India has achieved a major milestone by successfully conducting flight trial of long range hypersonic missile from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, off-the-coast of Odisha. 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,” Singh said in a post on X on Sunday, congratulating DRDO and the armed forces.

This hypersonic missile can carry various payloads for ranges over 1500 km for all the 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.

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 maneuvers while flying at various altitudes and speeds. The missile is also equipped with advanced avionics and software to ensure better and reliable performance.