The DRDO displayed the Long Range Anti-Ship Hypersonic Missile (LR-AShM) for the first time at the 77th Republic Day Parade, highlighting its 1,500 km range and hypersonic glide capability.
India is also advancing other hypersonic technologies, including scramjet-powered cruise missiles, with recent successful ground and flight tests strengthening its position in the hypersonic arms domain.
At the 77th Republic Day Parade on Kartavya Path, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) showcased the Long Range Anti-Ship Hypersonic Missile (LR-AShM) for the first time, marking the highlight of its display. The missile’s features and capabilities, along with details of other hypersonic weapons under development in India, were outlined by the organisation.
The DRDO presented the LR-AShM along with its launcher. Designed to meet the coastal battery requirements of the Indian Navy, the missile system can engage both static and moving targets and is capable of carrying different payloads to a range of about 1,500 km.
The LR-AShM follows a quasi-ballistic trajectory and operates at hypersonic speeds, beginning at Mach 10 and maintaining an average speed of Mach 5 with multiple skips. While ballistic missiles are initially boost-powered and then travel unpowered along a high, arched path, quasi-ballistic missiles fly at lower altitudes and manoeuvre during flight to evade interception.
Flying at low altitudes with high speed and manoeuvrability, the missile is difficult for enemy ground- and ship-based radars to detect. It is equipped with a two-stage solid propulsion rocket motor system that accelerates it to hypersonic velocity. Stage 1 separates after burnout, and following Stage 2 burnout, the vehicle performs an unpowered glide through the atmosphere with the required manoeuvres before striking the target, according to the DRDO.
“It has high aerodynamic efficiency which means that it moves through the air with minimal drag while generating effective lift and control, allowing it to fly farther, faster, or more accurately using the same amount of energy,” a DRDO scientist told The Indian Express.
Strategic significance and road ahead
One of the key advantages of hypersonic speed is the difficulty of detection. The missile can cover its 1,500 km range in about 15 minutes. Variants with extended ranges of up to 3,500 km are currently at different stages of development.
A senior DRDO scientist told The Indian Express, “All classes of warships can be neutralised with the missile. This variant and the upcoming ranges will be a key asset for sea denial operations, which prevent an adversary from using a maritime area for military or commercial purposes. This capability will be crucial for the strategically significant Indian Ocean region. Army and Air Force versions of these missile and ship-fired versions for the Navy are also said to be either under consideration or under development. With its versatility, it could well place India in the hypersonic arms domain.”
One of the missile’s successful tests was conducted by the DRDO on November 16, 2024, from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast. As part of the next phase of development, the warhead and sensor systems will be integrated before the missile’s induction into the Navy, expected in two to three years. The LR-AShM incorporates key components from the submarine-launched ballistic missile Sagarika or K-15 of the K missile family, as well as from the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.
Other hypersonic cruise missiles
Amid intense global competition in hypersonic weapons, the DRDO is pursuing two major hypersonic technologies — hypersonic glide and hypersonic cruise. The LR-AShM is a hypersonic glide vehicle and represents significant progress in indigenous technologies, including advanced materials and control systems required for sustained hypersonic flight.
Hypersonic cruise missiles operate within the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds using scramjet engines for sustained powered flight and manoeuvrability.
Ramjets are air-breathing engines that compress incoming air through forward motion, with fuel ignited in a combustion chamber. They require assisted take-off and are most efficient around Mach 3, but lose effectiveness at hypersonic speeds. Scramjets advance this technology by maintaining supersonic airflow within the combustion chamber, allowing efficient operation above Mach 5, though they are considerably more complex to design and operate.
Earlier this month, the DRDO achieved a major milestone by conducting ground tests of its Actively Cooled Scramjet Full Scale Combustor, recording a run time of more than 12 minutes. This followed an earlier subscale test on April 25 last year that ran for over 1,000 seconds.
In September 2020, the DRDO had also successfully demonstrated hypersonic air-breathing scramjet technology through the flight test of the Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle from the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Launch Complex.
(with inputs from The Indian Express)
