Vishnu: DRDO's new Hypersonic Cruise Missile

Hypersonic Missiles

The speed greater than 5-times the speed of sound or Mach-5 is called Hypersonic Speed. Hypersonic weapons are extremely difficult to detect, and counter given these weapons’ speed, maneuverability, low flight paths, and unpredictable trajectories.

While traditional intercontinental ballistic missiles follow relatively predicable up-and-down trajectory, hypersonic weapons are maneuverable and can fly at altitudes where few military sensors & radars are monitoring. They can conceivably be deployed from land, air and sea.

Types of Hypersonic Missiles

There are two types which are under development and in service with various military of the world. First one is hypersonic cruise missiles, which are powered by an air-breathing Ramjet, Scramjet or Dual Mode Ramjet (DMRJ) engine; and hypersonic glide vehicles, which reach orbit with a conventional booster before gliding towards a target. The Hypersonic cruise missiles are powered throughout their flight using the scramjet engine, whereas the hypersonic glide vehicle makes use of their aerodynamic shape to glide towards the target after released from a certain altitude and speed. The Hypersonic glide vehicle follows zig zag trajectory during their terminal phase not a typical parabolic path making them extremely unpredictable. The Hypersonic cruise missile has comparatively smoother path of motion, but their flight altitude is much lower than Hypersonic glide vehicle, hence their detection in radar is nearly impossible due to earth’s curvature.

DRDO HSTDV and Vishnu relation

As we all know that DRDO has been working on developing a Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle or HSTDV which is powered by a scramjet engine and will be used to develop Hypersonic cruise missile. The development of the Hypersonic cruise missile which is expected to be a spin-off of HSTDV powered by scramjet engine has commenced under the name Project Vishnu. Similar to HSTDV, this cruise missile will have two stages. The missile is expected to have better fuel efficiency and may have thrust vectoring capability. Just like HSTDV, the missile to be developed under project Vishnu is going to be solid rocket motor. This stage will be used to take the missile to desired speed and altitude where the scramjet engine will ignite. The scramjet engine does not work at stall condition and need to be 1st carried to supersonic speed to ignite them. This how they have got their name as Supersonic Combustion Ramjet or in short scramjet. Mastering the scramjet engine won’t be an easy task. In a recent interview, the DRDO chief informed that the organization is also working on the scramjet engine and the materials required for it, and various thermodynamic aspect of the system. DRDO is working on the materials which can withstand the thermodynamic stresses in the hypersonic vehicles. We have also seen various tenders released this year for acquiring different parts of HSTDV program which indicates DRDO’s is planning the HSTDV test this year which will be building block of upcoming Hypersonic Cruise missile programs like Vishnu. The official sanction to this project is expected this year.

Surface and Air Launched HCM

Two different variants of Hypersonic missiles are likely to be developed under project Vishnu. First one is going to be surface to surface missile with range around 2500KM and expected to enter services by 2024-25.

The second one is going to be a smaller and compact version of air launched cruise hypersonic missile with a range in excess of 700KM that can be launched from an aircraft.

The expected speed of these missiles will range from Mach7-10. Not much of the information is not available this program and in future as the development progress, more information will come on public domain. We can expect changes in its specification as well. Since DRDO is not starting from scratch and has already performed successful trial of HSTDV, the reasonable time for the completion of development of these is to be 4-5years.


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