Focus: GS III-Defence , Prelims
Why in News?
Recently, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) booster at the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.
What is Ramjet?
- Ramjet is a form of air-breathing jet engine that uses the vehicle’s forward motion to compress incoming air for combustion without a rotating compressor.
- Ramjets can be particularly useful in applications requiring a small and simple mechanism for high-speed use, such as missiles.
- Unlike conventional rockets that carry propellant and oxidizer, Ramjet uses the air as an oxidizer just like a jet engine.
About SFDR
- It is a missile propulsion technology jointly developed by India and Russia.
- It enables the missile to intercept aerial threats at very long range at supersonic speeds.
- 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 ITR.
- It will help both India’s surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles to perform better and enhance their strike range, making them more lethal.
- Possible usage of SFDR: These are to be used in the future variants of missiles, including an advanced version of the ASTRA, Beyond Visual Range AAM (BVRAAM) expected to extend the range to 150 km in the Mk-3 version.
- According to the DRDO, the SFDR has a range of 120 km with a speed range of 2.3-2.5 Mach.
