In yet another milestone as India looks to modernise its armed forces, the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) of Hyderabad has successfully conducted the second extensive long-duration test of its Actively Cooled Scramjet Full Scale Combustor, said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Saturday.
The test was conducted on Friday during which the DRDL achieved a run time of over 1,200 seconds at its state-of-the-art Scramjet Connect Pipe Test (SCPT) Facility. This, the DRDO said, is a major advancement towards the hypersonic missile programme of the country.
The first such test was conducted in January this year during which a run time of over 12 minutes was achieved. That test had put India at the forefront of advanced aerospace capabilities.
"The remarkable feat is achieved through cutting-edge supersonic air-breathing engine, which utilises indigenously developed liquid hydrocarbon endothermic fuel, High temperature Thermal Barrier coating & advanced manufacturing processes," the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a release.
"The ground-tests conducted at the SCPT facility have successfully validated the design of advanced active cooled scramjet combustor as well as the capabilities of state-of-art test facility," it said, adding that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and DRDO chairperson Dr Samir V Kamat have congratulated the team for this achievement.
DRDO conducts successful test of Agnir MIRV
Earlier in the day, the DRDO also said that it has successfully conducted the test of an Advanced Agni missile. The test of the missile with Multiple Independently Targeted Re-Entry Vehicle (MIRV) system was carried out on the APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha on Friday.
The maiden test of the Agni-5 with the MIRV feature, which ensures that a missile carries multiple war heads at different locations, was conducted in March last year. This feature will further strengthen India's preparedness against the growing threat perceptions.
"The missile was flight-tested with multiple payloads, targeted to different targets spatially distributed over a large geographical area in the Indian Ocean Region," the defence ministry had said in a statement.
