DRDO Successfully Tests India's First Scramjet Combustor for Hypersonic Technology Advancement.
Science and Technology
In January 2025, DRDO, under the Ministry of Defence (MoD), conducted a 120-second ground test of an active cooled scramjet combustor, marking India's entry into advanced hypersonic technology development.
- The combustor was designed and developed by the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), a DRDO unit in Hyderabad, Telangana, as part of India's hypersonic program.
- A significant breakthrough was the development of a specialized endothermic scramjet fuel, enhancing cooling efficiency and enabling reliable ignition, completely designed in India.
- DRDL created a high-temperature-resistant ceramic Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC) to protect engine components, ensuring durability and performance under extreme heat, even beyond the melting point of steel.
Main Point :- (i) The scramjet combustor demonstrated its ability to ignite and sustain stable combustion at airspeeds exceeding 1.5 kilometers per second, overcoming one of the most challenging aspects of scramjet technology.
(ii) Advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were employed to refine the design and improve the performance of the scramjet engine.
(iii) Hypersonic missiles, powered by scramjet engines, achieve speeds over Mach 5 (5,400 km/hr), offering unparalleled speed, precision, and the ability to evade current air defense systems, making them critical for modern defense strategies.
About Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
Chairman : Sameer Venkatapathy Kamat
Headquarters: New Delhi
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