New Delhi: India has taken a significant leap in advanced missile technology after the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully conducted a long-duration ground test of an actively cooled scramjet combustor, the Defence Ministry said on Friday.
The milestone test was carried out by the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), a Hyderabad-based DRDO facility, marking a crucial step towards the development of hypersonic cruise missiles.
According to the ministry, the full-scale scramjet combustor was tested for more than 12 minutes at the Scramjet Connect Pipe Test (SCPT) Facility on January 9, validating both the advanced engine design and the capabilities of the state-of-the-art test infrastructure.
A hypersonic cruise missile is capable of travelling at over five times the speed of sound, exceeding 6,100 kmph, and sustaining such speeds for extended durations. This performance is made possible through air-breathing scramjet engines, which use supersonic combustion to enable long-range, high-speed flight.
“The remarkable feat has been achieved through a cutting-edge air-breathing engine that sustains long-duration flight using supersonic combustion,” the ministry said, adding that the test successfully validated the combustor design as well as the SCPT facility.
The achievement builds on an earlier sub-scale long-duration test conducted on April 25 last year, and represents a major advancement in India’s hypersonic weapons programme. The combustor and testing facility were designed and developed by DRDL, with support from industry partners, reinforcing collaboration between defence research institutions and the private sector.
The ministry said the successful test places India among the world’s leading nations in advanced aerospace and hypersonic technologies. In January 2025, DRDO had earlier demonstrated the operational potential of a scramjet combustor through another ground test.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO scientists, industry partners and academia for the achievement, calling it a strong foundation for India’s hypersonic cruise missile development programme.
Samir V. Kamat, Secretary of the Department of Defence R&D and Chairman of DRDO, also praised the teams involved, terming the accomplishment a commendable technological breakthrough.