Long-Range Hypersonic Missile

19.11.2024

Long-Range Hypersonic Missile

Why in the news?   

Recently, India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight-tested a long-range hypersonic missile off the coast of Odisha.

About Long-Range Hypersonic Missile:

• The missile can carry various payloads for ranges greater than 1,500 km for the Armed Forces.
• It has been indigenously developed by laboratories of the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex, Hyderabad, along with various other DRDO labs and industry partners.

What are Hypersonic missiles?

• The term “Hypersonic” refers to a speed at least five times the speed of sound (also called Mach-5).
• Another key feature of such missiles is manoeuvrability, setting them apart from a ballistic missile that follows a set course or trajectory.
• Hypersonic Cruise Missiles use scramjet engines to sustain hypersonic speeds throughout their flight, flying at lower altitudes and also possessing manoeuvrability.
• The two types of hypersonic weapons systems are Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGV) and Hypersonic Cruise Missiles.
• The HGVs are launched from a rocket before gliding to the intended target while HCMs are powered by air-breathing high-speed engines or ‘scramjets’ after acquiring their target.

Advantages of hypersonic missiles:

• Hypersonic weapons can enable responsive, long-range strike options against distant, defended or time-critical threats (such as road-mobile missiles) when other forces are unavailable, denied access or not preferred.
• Conventional hypersonic weapons use only kinetic energy, i.e. energy derived from motion, to destroy unhardened targets or even underground facilities.
• They fly at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles, which means that they may be harder to track at long distances with some surface-based sensors, such as certain radar
• Russia and China are believed to be ahead in developing hypersonic missiles while the US is developing a range of such weapons under an ambitious programme.

                                                                Source: Indian Express

Consider the following statements regarding Hypersonic missiles:

1. These missiles have a speed at least five times the speed of sound.

2. These missiles fly at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles and can enable responsive, long-range strike options.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A.1 only

B.2 only

C.Both 1 and 2

D.Neither 1 nor 2

Answer C