India’s first hypersonic weapon emerged into public view on India’s Republic Day parade on 26 January. Its appearance indicates it is in an advanced stage of development, and is possibly nearing induction with the Indian Navy.
The hypersonic glide missile, officially designated the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LR-AShM), has been indigenously developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Indian Navy will operate the new hypersonic weapon as part of a coastal battery system. “The LR-AShM is a hypersonic glide missile capable of engaging static and moving targets, and is designed to carry various payloads,” MoD officials stated.
The LR-AShM has been designed with the provision to accommodate multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles.
The weapon will engage enemy ground- and ship-based radars, while flying at low altitude with high speed and manoeuvrability. It features indigenously developed avionics and accurate sensors, enabling the engagement of moving targets during the terminal flight phase.
Additional details released by the MoD stated that hypersonic speed follows a quasi-ballistic trajectory, and that it can achieve velocities of Mach 10 or more. It maintains an average speed of Mach 5 through multiple skip-glide phases.
A two-stage, solid-propulsion rocket motor system on the first stage propels the missile to its operational altitude, followed by second-stage burnout after which the glide vehicle proceeds unpowered before engaging the target.
The LR-AShM is mounted on a Tatra Terra 12×12 transporter-erector-launcher manufactured under license by state-owned Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML).
DRDO had earlier announced the successful flight trial of a hypersonic weapon in November 2016. At that time, DRDO stated the hypersonic missile was designed to carry various payloads to ranges greater than 1,500km for the armed forces. It also indicated the hypersonic weapon would be operated by the navy, army and air force.
India continues to advance hypersonic air-breathing propulsion technologies too. In January, the Hyderabad-based Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), which is part of DRDO, announced it had successfully conducted an extensive, long-duration, ground test of its actively cooled, full-scale, scramjet combustor.
The test, in which the combustor exceeded twelve minutes of sustained operation, was achieved at DRDL’s state-of-the-art Scramjet Connect Pipe Test Facility. This latest long-duration ground test built on an earlier subscale test that took place in April 2025.
In September 2020, DRDO had also demonstrated hypersonic, air-breathing, scramjet technology with a flight test of its Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle (HSTDV).
by Mike Rajkumar
