Months after reports that China had tested more than one hypersonic missile, which circled the globe before missing its targets by a few kilometres in August, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday said India too must work towards developing hypersonic missiles to maintain credible deterrence.
He added India must aspire to develop niche defence technologies that are only available with a select few nations at the moment. “India should become the leader in defence technology, this should be our biggest effort. The technologies that we have been able to make ourselves are our own now. At the same time, we have to indigenise those technologies that are with only a few selected countries today. For example, ballistic missile defence is becoming more robust day by day. To maintain our minimum credible deterrence, we have to quickly think about the development of hypersonic cruise missiles. This will be a revolutionary change in our defence sector and for this, we all have to work together.”