With a military standoff between India and China intensifying, the Indian military has decided to increase geopolitical instabilities in the region, on Monday, as it test-fired a new class of ultra-modern weapons that can travel at hypersonic speeds.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), an agency under the Indian Ministry of Defence, tasked with weapon development, released a statement Monday announcing it "successfully flight tested" a domestic hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle (HSTDV) for the first-time.
"The cruise vehicle separated from the launch vehicle and the air intake opened as planned. The hypersonic combustion sustained and the cruise vehicle continued on its desired flight path at a velocity of six times the speed of sound or nearly 2 km/second for more than 20 seconds," the DRDO statement read. India's first test of the HSTDV ended in failure in June 2019.
The successful test of the hypersonic vehicle is an important milestone for India as it now joins the US, Russia, and China in the hypersonic club.
"This has been some time in the making and the challenge now is to make a time-bound transition to the prototype testing phase. China is quite ahead in hypersonics and India cannot afford to lag behind," Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (Retired), additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies, said.
The timing of the launch comes as India and China are locked in a monthslong military standoff along the Line of Actual Control, a 2,175 mile disputed border between both countries, that stretches from the Ladakh region in the north to the Indian state of Sikkim.
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