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India’s HSTDV May Be Ready By 2015

: Dec 6, 2013 - : 8:18 am

New Delhi: India’s highly ambitious Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) is expected to be ready for use by 2015, as scientists plan to conduct its first flight test in 2014.
Defense scientists are conducting a series of tests and have already achieved some milestones in terms of engine development.
“We are working on a demonstrator vehicle in the hypersonic space which will hopefully lead us to design hypersonic vehicles and ways to manage the thermal environment,” says V.G. Sekaran, director general (missiles and strategic systems) at the Defense Research and Development Organization.
The HSTDV, which has already touched 6.5 Mach, will achieve its aim of scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) flight for 20 seconds, he adds.
The initial ground testing of the vehicle for nearly 20 seconds was conducted in Nov.2012 and it performed well. “We are hopeful to flight test it at Mach 6-7 speed in 2014,” an official of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization tells this correspondent.
The official from DRDO’s Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), which is responsible for the program’s current phase, says “the HSTDV mission involves launching the hypersonic air-breathing vehicle called the Cruise Vehicle to Mach 6.5 at an altitude of 30 km to 35 km using a rocket launch vehicle.”
The project is expected to be completed within next 18 months.
“Research projects [in such space] need lot of funding, time and effort,” DRDO director general Sekaran says.
Measuring over 18 ft in length, the scramjet-powered air-breathing vehicle will be boosted to its test cruise condition by a well proven AGNI A1 rocket. While some large scale ground based tests facilities are still under construction, existing test facilities are being used to develop the preliminary design data needed for flight tests as well as for CFD (computational fluid dynamics) code validation.
India is already carrying out broad research on special materials for thermal protection of the HSTDV, including carbon-carbon composites, nickel-based super-alloys, niobium alloys and high thermal conducting copper alloy.
The HSTDV will “give India a lead in hypersonic vehicle design, scramjet, material technology and how to manage environment which is peculiar to hypersonic flying engines,” Sekaran explains.
Besides, work on the wind tunnel facility required for tests has already begun in the southern city Hyderabad.
“This will reduce the development cycle in hypersonic program,” he says.
The HSTDV program is intended to develop a hydrocarbon-fuelled scramjet test article adept of Mach 6-7 and autonomously guided flight.
It will lead the way for a hypersonic cruise missile and platform that can be possibly related to other missions, such as very high-speed reconnaissance.
Israel has provided some assistance on the HSTDV program, including wind tunnel testing, as has Cranfield University of the U.K.
India’s main defense-industrial partner is Russia, which has carried out considerable research into hypersonic propulsion.
The HSTDV effort is running in parallel with India’s other major hypersonic project, the BrahMos II missile joint venture with NPO Mashinostroyenia of Russia.
However, the two projects remain completely separate as the focus of the HSTDV is to ensure the development of an indigenous hypersonic capability.

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