DRDO conducts successful flight test of SFDR technology

The Defence Research and Development Organisation on March 5, 2021, successfully conducted a flight test of the Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet- SFDR missile propulsion system from the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, Odisha.

According to an official statement from DRDO, all the subsystems, including nozzle less motor and booster motor, performed at the test as expected.

The launch of SFDR was monitored by the senior scientists of various DRDO labs, including Research Centre Imarat, Defence Research, and Development Authority- DRDL, and High Energy Materials Research Laboratory- HEMRL.

The Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also congratulated the Indian Air Force and the scientists of DRDO on the successful flight test of Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet.

DRDO successfully conducted flight test of Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) Technology today at around 1030 hrs from ITR Chandipur. All the subsystems including the ground booster motor performed as per expectation. #AtmaNirbharBharat@SpokespersonMoD @adgpi @rajnathsingh pic.twitter.com/japob7kI8t

— DRDO (@DRDO_India) March 5, 2021

Technological advantage to DRDO:

The official statement by DRDO mentioned that the successful demonstration of SFDR technology has provided the Defence Research and Development Organisation a technological advantage which will enable the government organisation in developing long-range air-to-air missiles.

It further added that at present this form of technology is currently available only in a handful of countries.

Flight test of SFDR: Key Details

• The performance of the missile was monitored with the help of data captured by Radar, Electro-Optical, and Telemetry instruments which were deployed by ITR and confirmed the demonstration of the mission objectives.

• During the flight-test, many new technologies, which included Solid Fuel based Ducted Ramjet Technology was also proven during the test.

• At the time of the test, air-launch was stimulated with the use of a booster motor. The nozzle-less booster speeded up it to the required Mach number for the Ramjet operation.

Launch of Sindhu Netra Satellite:

The Sindhu Netra Satellite which has been developed by DRDO was successfully deployed in space on February 28, 2021. The satellite by DRDO is capable of automatically identifying the merchant ships and warships operating in the Indian Ocean Region.