Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), a research laboratory of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has carried out a successful long-duration ground test of its actively cooled scramjet full-scale combustor.
The test, conducted at the Scramjet Connect Pipe Test (SCPT) Facility in Hyderabad on 9 January 2026, lasted over 12 minutes and forms part of India’s ongoing work on hypersonic missiles.
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The Ministry of Defence stated in a post on X: “Hyderabad-based DRDL, @DRDO_India, successfully conducted a 12+ minute long-duration ground test of a full-scale actively cooled scramjet combustor at its SCPT facility, strengthening India’s Hypersonic Cruise Missile programme.”
This recent development follows a previous subscale test held on 25 April 2025, which also focused on long-duration operations.
The current test has further validated the design and capability of the advanced scramjet combustor as well as the associated facility.
Both the combustor and the testing facility were designed and built by DRDL, with support from industry partners.
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By GlobalDataThe Hypersonic Cruise Missile under development is intended to travel at speeds surpassing five times the speed of sound, or over 6,100 km/h, for sustained periods.
The technology relies on an air-breathing engine utilising supersonic combustion to maintain extended flight durations.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh acknowledged the work by stating that the achievement is a solid foundation for the nation’s Hypersonic Cruise Missile Development Program.
Secretary of the Department of Defence R&D and Chairman of DRDO, Dr Samir V Kamat, also congratulated those involved with the project.
In July last year, DRDO completed two consecutive flight tests of the Pralay surface-to-surface missile, meeting all stated objectives for those launches.
