How India's 1st hypersonic missile will 'skip' & 'glide' its way to target

India displayed its new indigenously-developed Long Range Anti-Ship Hypersonic Missile (LR-AShM) for the first time at the 77th Republic Day parade.

Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian Navy, the missile is specifically designed to strike enemy ships at long ranges, combining high speed with precision to engage targets far from India’s coastline.

The weapon’s first successful flight test in November 2024 placed India among a select group of nations, including China, Russia and the United States, to have achieved hypersonic missile capability.

Senior officials and defence analysts described the system as a state-of-the-art maritime strike weapon, capable of engaging both static and moving targets deep at sea.

According to a defence ministry statement, the LR-AShM has a range of around 1,500 kilometres with a capacity to carry various payloads. It is designed to fly at average speeds of about Mach 5 or five times the speed of sound, with peak speeds approaching Mach 10, giving little to no time for detection and interception.

LR-AShM- the hypersonic glide missile

While ballistic missiles are boosted by rockets into space after which they fall back towards the target following a predictable arc, and cruise missiles fly within the atmosphere using engines like a small aircraft, keeping a steady path at lower speeds, the hypersonic weapons travel at speeds greater than Mach 5 and can be either glide vehicles or hypersonic cruise missiles.

The LR-AShM combines the features of more than one missile category. It shares some characteristics with a hypersonic glide vehicle, which separates from its rocket booster and then travels at hypersonic speed using lift and steering.

At the same time, it follows a quasi-ballistic trajectory, with the capability of ballistic and cruise missiles, and “skip-glide” flight for mid-course manoeuvres to evade defences.

“The LR-AShM is configured with a two-stage solid propulsion rocket motor system. These propulsion systems boost the missile to the required hypersonic velocities. Stage-1 of the vehicle is separated after it is spent. After Stage-II burnout, the vehicle performs an unpowered glide with required manoeuvres in the atmosphere before engaging the target,” said the statement.

What is ‘skip-glide’ flight?

The term “skip” refers to how the missile moves through the atmosphere at high speed, rather than just flying in a straight line or a single arc. It can pull up and then glide downward again, similar to how a stone skips across water. The “skip” uses aerodynamic lift to stay aloft and cover more horizontal distance.

This flight style gives the missile two key advantages — unpredictability and low detectability — making it harder for radar systems to detect, track, and intercept it.

The LR-AShM is primarily an anti-ship weapon, with long range and high speed to target high-value naval units, including aircraft carriers and large surface combatants.

The missile also fits into a broader military concept of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD), keeping adversary forces out of a particular area or forcing them to risk heavy losses if they enter.