DRDO has successfully conducted a high-speed missile test of a fighter jet’s escape system at a controlled speed, confirming key safety features such as full recovery of the aircrew, PTI reported.
The achievement puts India among an “elite group of nations” that has advanced in-house capabilities for testing evasion systems, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
In the rocket sled test, the system coupled to the rocket propulsion mechanism is operated at high speed on a pair of rails to simulate a moving aircraft in mid-air, a senior official said.
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh praised DRDO, IAF, Aeronautical Development Agency and HAL for the successful test. He described it as a major milestone for India’s indigenous defense capability towards self-sufficiency.
“The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has successfully conducted a high-speed rocket test of a fighter jet escape system at a precisely controlled speed of 800 km/h – verifying canopy separation, ejection sequencing and full crew recovery at the Rail Track Rocket Sled (RTRS) facility at the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory at XTBRL,” Defense Minister Chandi said at XTBRL.
The comprehensive dynamic test conducted at the rocket sled facility at Chandigarh was conducted in collaboration with the Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and moved India into the “elite club of nations” with advanced in-house escape system testing capabilities, the ministry said in a statement.
“The LCA’s two-stage front-end aircraft system was propelled to a precisely controlled speed through the phased firing of multiple solid-propellant rocket motors,” it said.
The test was witnessed by officials of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Institute of Aviation Medicine.
The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) “conducted a successful high-speed missile test of a fighter jet escape system at controlled speed,” the ministry said.
“A test at the railed rocket sled facility at the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory, Chandigarh, confirmed canopy separation, ejection sequencing and full recovery of the aircrew,” the ministry said.
It further states “the canopy embrittlement pattern, ejection sequence, and aircrew full recovery process were simulated using an instrumented anthropomorphic test dummy that recorded the critical loads, moments, and accelerations that ejected pilots would experience.”
The entire sequence was captured via on-board and ground-based imaging systems.
“Dynamic ejection tests are significantly more complex than static tests such as the ‘nettest’ or ‘zero test’ and are the true benchmark for evaluating the performance of the ejection seat and the effectiveness of the canopy separation system,” the ministry said.
DRDO Chairman and Defense Research and Development Secretary Samir V. Kamat also praised and congratulated the DRDO team involved in the successful test.
