India Successfully Tests Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet Booster

India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight-tested the Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) booster, which enables a missile to intercept very long-range aerial threats at supersonic speeds.

The test conducted at a test range in Odisha state met all the mission objectives, India’s defense ministry said.

“The performance of the system has been confirmed from the data captured by a number of range instruments like Telemetry, Radar and Electro-Optical Tracking Systems deployed by [Integrated Test Range],” the ministry said in a statement. 

The DRDO began developing the propulsion system in 2013 in collaboration with Hyderabad-based Research Centre Imarat and Pune-based High Energy Materials Research Laboratory.

In March 2021, the DRDO successfully carried out a flight demonstration of the SFDR technology. It conducted successful tests in 2018 and 2019 as well. 

The technology is available in a few countries, and Russia initially contributed to the research and development of the project during its first flight in 2018.