India Hypersonic Programs

[Gautam]

Another photo of the HSTDV :

A 3 part article on the HSTDV. @Nilgiri this might interest you :

Missile scientists encountered multiple challenges developing complex technologies | HSTDV series Part-1

Through this three-part series, we bring to you a glimpse of the early years of India's HSTDV dream, the current state, and the road ahead..Missile scientists, multiple challenges, complex technologies, HSTDV series Part-1

www.onmanorama.com

Despite the pandemic blow, missile scientists held on to the hypersonic dream | HSTDV series Part-2

In the last one decade, missile scientists have made several design changes on HSTDV, mainly in panel separation and cruise vehicle ejection.COVID-19 pandemic blow, missile scientists, hypersonic dream, HSTDV series Part-2

www.onmanorama.com

In the next test, HSTDV will fly without upper stage fairings | Part-3

In this final part of the Onmanorama series ‘HSTDV Story’, we look at some of the coming stages for this mission, the future of hypersonic research.HSTDV. upper stage fairings. Part-3. DRDO. Defence

www.onmanorama.com

 

[Gautam]

Fore end of the HSTDV :

 

[adenl]

Quite impressive developments I have to say. Time to shift part of my focus to the Indian defense industry.

 

[Raptor]

Fore end of the HSTDV :

View attachment 6983

This is cutting-edge technology man.
The next test would be crucial and may happen in 2021 ig

 

[Nilgiri]

Another photo of the HSTDV :
View attachment 6976

A 3 part article on the HSTDV. @Nilgiri this might interest you :

Missile scientists encountered multiple challenges developing complex technologies | HSTDV series Part-1

Through this three-part series, we bring to you a glimpse of the early years of India's HSTDV dream, the current state, and the road ahead..Missile scientists, multiple challenges, complex technologies, HSTDV series Part-1

www.onmanorama.com

Despite the pandemic blow, missile scientists held on to the hypersonic dream | HSTDV series Part-2

In the last one decade, missile scientists have made several design changes on HSTDV, mainly in panel separation and cruise vehicle ejection.COVID-19 pandemic blow, missile scientists, hypersonic dream, HSTDV series Part-2

www.onmanorama.com

In the next test, HSTDV will fly without upper stage fairings | Part-3

In this final part of the Onmanorama series ‘HSTDV Story’, we look at some of the coming stages for this mission, the future of hypersonic research.HSTDV. upper stage fairings. Part-3. DRDO. Defence

www.onmanorama.com

Thanks man, much appreciated!

 

[Zapper]

beyond 5 in future

Beyond mach 5 is essentially their hypersonic variant

 

[Nilgiri]

Beyond mach 5 is essentially their hypersonic variant

View attachment 7887

Yes HSTDV will provide much data and development for this I feel. There is some speculation about what exactly Zircon project influence will be for Brahmos II (from Russian side) and what India's will be....at any rate HSTDV will be important for India to develop later iterations and new products in this class of missile by itself.

 

[Raptor]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1340295500675702784

 

[Nilgiri]

Hypersonic wind tunnel to take India into elite group

ajaishukla.blogspot.com

On Saturday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Hyderabad to inaugurate India’s first hypersonic wind tunnel – a missile and aircraft testing facility so high-tech that only the US and Russia have them.



In September, India entered an elite group in the field of hypersonics when the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) flew its Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle (HSTDV) at a speed of Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound, or two kilometres per second) for more than 22 seconds.



However, the HSTDV test was a leap into the blue, with the only assurance of success coming from previous computer simulations. Hereafter, with the DRDO possessing hypersonic wind tunnel facilities, future tests of hypersonic missiles, aircraft and engines would also have the comfort of prior physical testing in a wind tunnel.



The new DRDO wind tunnel will be capable of simulating flight between Mach 5 to Mach 12. All flight above Mach 5-6 is regarded as hypersonic flight. Currently, the fastest fighter jets and cruise missiles travel at Mach 2.5 to Mach 3.



The new wind tunnel will allow better preparation for flight-testing by physically duplicating the extreme environment of hypersonic flight in ground testing. This will allow the DRDO’s aerodynamicists to discover issues and problems and to iron them out before flight testing.



Wind tunnels are basically large tubes with a provision to blow air through them at very high speed. Moving air around a scaled-down model of the object being tested makes it seem like the object is flying, even though it actually remains stationary in the tunnel. Gauges installed at crucial points on the object being tested provide vital information about how air would flow over the object’s surfaces in actual flight.



Designing and developing a hypersonic wind tunnel posed major construction challenges in the aero and thermo-mechanical fields. A source in the DRDO states: “It involved intricate engineering, demanded massive fabrication effort, utilized super-precision machining, involved precise erection of heavy equipment and had to satisfy a range of safety protocols. It was a totally indigenous effort and required working in synergy with Indian industries.”



Presently all missile and aircraft pre-flight testing is carried out in in the so-called Trisonic Wind Tunnel Facility that is operated by the at National Aerospace Laboratory, Bangalore. Since this can simulate object speeds only up to Mach 4, more sophisticated wind tunnels are needed for the DRDO’s hypersonic flight programmes.



DRDO sources say the new wind tunnel, which will be operated by the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), will be invaluable in the configuration design of tactical missiles, designing of multi-stage vehicles, intake aerodynamics, aerodynamics of submunition warhead, stage separation studies for multi-stage rockets and aero-thermal design for re-entry vehicles.



Even supersonic cruise missiles and aircraft are vulnerable to interception, but launching a hypersonic object at a target leaves the enemy with very little time to react. It is estimated that a hypersonic Indian missile would strike a target anywhere in China in less than five minutes, while a Chinese hypersonic missile would strike targets in the US in under 14 minutes.

 

[Zapper]

Rajnath Singh Inaugurates India's 1st Hypersonic Wind Tunnel Facility. Here's What it Means for Us​

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday inaugurated the advanced Hypersonic Wind Tunnel (HWT) test facility here, making India the third country after the US and Russia to have such a facility. The state-of-the-art HWT Test facility is "pressure vacuum driven enclosed free jet facility having nozzle exit diameter of 1 metre and will simulate Mach No 5 to 12 (Mach represents the multiplication factor to the speed of sound)", a defence release said.

After America and Russia, India is the third country to have such a large facility in terms of size and operating capability, it said. It is an indigenous development and an outcome of synergistic partnership with Indian industries.

The facility has the capability to "simulate hypersonic flow over a wide spectrum and will play a major role in the realization of highly complex futuristic aerospace and defence systems," the release said. Singh, who visited the Defence Research and Development Organisation's Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex here during his two-day visit to the city, urged the DRDO's scientists to make India a "Super Military Power", thereby making India a Super Power, a defence release said.


He appreciated thecontributions of DRDO Young Scientist Labs and said the DRDO needs to focus on next generation needs, including cyber security, space and artificial intelligence and evolve roadmaps. "The immense potential available in DRDO has been a catalyst for the development of industries and defence manufacturing sector. RM (Raksha Mantri) urged DRDO scientists to make India a Super Military Power thereby making India a Super Power," it said.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy and DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy accompanied Singh during the visit. The release said Lab Directors, Cluster DGs and Programme Directors briefed the dignitaries about the ongoing projects and technological developments.

Hyderabad-based DRDO labs showcased various indigenously developed systems and technologies in wide ranging areas including missiles, avionics systems, advanced materials, electronic warfare, quantum key distribution technology, directed energy weapons, Gallium Arsenide and Gallium Nitride technology capabilities. Two anti-drone technologies were demonstrated by DRDO labs to Singh, it said.

The Defence Minister, who addressed the DRDO fraternity, applauded the recent series of successful missions and technological achievements by various clusters of the organisation. This included the Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle (HSTDV), Anti-Radiation Missile (RUDRAM), Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM), Supersonic Missile Assisted Release Torpedo (SMART) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology during the last six months,it said.

https://www.news18.com/news/india/r...ility-heres-what-it-means-for-us-3194777.html

 

[Raptor]

If we would get hypersonic cruise missle by 2025,it would be pretty much impressive and would give us edge.

 

[Nilgiri]

Flight detail + visualisation around the 5 minute mark.

Brief summary slide:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1384104790276272131

 

[Raptor]

HSTDV #003 would be tested soon

 

[Raptor]

Detailed video about aerodynamics w.r.t HSTDV
@Cabatli_53 @Kartal1 @Nilgiri @Zapper @crixus @Test7 @Indos @Combat-Master @T-123456 @Anmdt

 

[Nilgiri]

Detailed video about aerodynamics w.r.t HSTDV
@Cabatli_53 @Kartal1 @Nilgiri @Zapper @crixus @Test7 @Indos @Combat-Master @T-123456 @Anmdt

A robust and good introduction to field of scramjet design...with some notable details w.r.t HSTDV.

These slides were most interesting to me (being a combustor guy myself, but at far lower regime of velocity):

From the mach pattern (and compactness of combustor length), we can clearly see perpendicular fuel injection regime for the struts....rather than parallel....given the massive boundary layer development early in axial section (2)

Obviously this has been picked to maximise mixing efficiency as starting reference results....at cost to flow disturbance + energy loss.

Given strut design (rather than a wall or ramp injector), it will be easy to introduce some hybrid regime of parallel injection as well in further iterations. In fact they might have already done so in the first successful test earlier if CFD + wind tunnel showed it could (start to) be done confidently.

It is of course a balance as early part of video states, i.e there is balance between compression (and consequent mass flow loss) provided by the oblique shocks at entry to consider w.r.t downstream flow profile quality (for combustion).

Too many parallel injectors after all would adversely affect what can be done within the critical length set by those inlet conditions.

I wonder if the struts can handle transverse injectors (to iterate various angles rather than choose only 90 or 0). That would be a great design choice in interest of time going forward.

 

[Raptor]

Another quite informative video.

 

[Gessler]

Ok so I'm hearing that the technology demonstration efforts under the HSTDV program have more or less concluded, or at least reached a point where development of 2 new weapon systems has started: a ground-launched & an air-launched hypersonic cruise missile system with air-breathing Scramjet propulsion.

This is from GODOFPARADOXES who let on some key design concepts of the 2 systems:

NOTE: These projects are independent from the joint BrahMos-II program pursued in cooperation with Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia (which is likely to have some connection to their Tsirkon program)...and because of that will be unregulated by NPT (can be nuclear-armed).

 

[Lonewolf]

Ok so I'm hearing that the technology demonstration efforts under the HSTDV program have more or less concluded, or at least reached a point where development of 2 new weapon systems has started: a ground-launched & an air-launched hypersonic cruise missile system with air-breathing Scramjet propulsion.

This is from GODOFPARADOXES who let on some key design concepts of the 2 systems:

View attachment 27236


NOTE: These projects are independent from the joint BrahMos-II program pursued in cooperation with Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia (which is likely to have some connection to their Tsirkon program)...and because of that will be unregulated by NPT (can be nuclear-armed).

Only disappointment of mine is that unlike zircon which goes full time hypersonic , it will decelerate at terminal phase , they should have thought of trying to add a terminal solid booster to maintain at mach 4 at least .

In AshM role even if manage to remain at mach 6 ,it won't be much helpful ,we need it to slow down a bit otherwise it will be like a bullet , will Peirce and cross the hull from other side and warhead might not detonate on time for full damage .

So for Ashm speed of mach 4 is max permissible for heavy ships ,(mach 3 is best at terminal ) ,but for ground attack mach 4-5 is workable with terminal boost .

Overall time of reaction will be much less than any available system . About half of time of brahmos , so a target at 700 km can be shot down in less than 5 min , not enough time to fire multiple sam ,then checking for kill and relaunch for more . Two missile at a Destroyer with gap of 2-5 minutes and you empty out their sam arsenal as opposition navy have to fire atleast 8 mrsam missile to cover a area of kill for hstdv . Considering that they have seeker to track it in time . So two missile means 16 sam, it's basically 10 million per ship of more than 200 million

 

[Gessler]

Only disappointment of mine is that unlike zircon which goes full time hypersonic , it will decelerate at terminal phase , they should have thought of trying to add a terminal solid booster to maintain at mach 4 at least .

In AshM role even if manage to remain at mach 6 ,it won't be much helpful ,we need it to slow down a bit otherwise it will be like a bullet , will Peirce and cross the hull from other side and warhead might not detonate on time for full damage .

So for Ashm speed of mach 4 is max permissible for heavy ships ,(mach 3 is best at terminal ) ,but for ground attack mach 4-5 is workable with terminal boost .

Overall time of reaction will be much less than any available system . About half of time of brahmos , so a target at 700 km can be shot down in less than 5 min , not enough time to fire multiple sam ,then checking for kill and relaunch for more . Two missile at a Destroyer with gap of 2-5 minutes and you empty out their sam arsenal as opposition navy have to fire atleast 8 mrsam missile to cover a area of kill for hstdv . Considering that they have seeker to track it in time . So two missile means 16 sam, it's basically 10 million per ship of more than 200 million

I believe the slowdown is to facilitate a greater degree of terminal maneuvering.

 

[Lonewolf]

Yup but they should have gone for mach 3.5 atleast


Or another possibility is that vehicle aerodynamic don't support required manuverability at such speed .

So at lower speed ,they want manuverability of a subsonic missile (more or less ) at supersonic speeds to maximize , sskp

I believe the slowdown is to facilitate a greater degree of terminal maneuvering.