Rudram-II Hypersonic Missile: On Tuesday, June 2, 2026, India said it had successfully tested the Rudram-II air-to-surface missile. The trial was done by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) from a Su-30MKI fighter aircraft. The Ministry of Defence said the launch was done under ‘extreme release conditions’. Even with that tough setup, the missile flew well and reached the target in the way it was meant to.
The ministry also said the missile hit a fixed target with ‘pin-point accuracy’. Test instruments at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur checked the full flight and confirmed that every mission goal was met. After the trial, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called it a big step and said the test showed the ‘growing maturity of indigenous defence technologies’.
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What is Rudram-II?
RudraM-II, Air-to-Surface Missile was successfully tested by #DRDO and @IAF_MCC from Airborne Platform. The tests were conducted under extreme release conditions with critical trajectory establishing the capability of all subsystems. pic.twitter.com/ED6DZK4hz7
— DRDO (@DRDO_India) June 2, 2026
Rudram-II is an Indian missile made to launch from aircraft. It was developed by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat in Hyderabad, with help from other DRDO labs and industry partners. It is built to go after enemy radar systems and air-defence weapons before those weapons can catch or attack friendly aircraft. The missile is said to have a range of around 300 kilometres, a top speed of up to Mach 5.5, and a payload of about 200 kilograms. That makes it a strong long-range strike weapon for air-to-surface missions.
In simple words, this missile is made to help planes stay safer. It can move fast and reach far. That is why it matters in India’s bigger plan for Suppression of Enemy Air Defences, also called SEAD. The main idea behind SEAD is to make enemy air-defence systems weaker before other aircraft move in.
Anti-Radiation Missiles
Anti-radiation missiles, or ARMs, are special weapons that look for radar signals. They do not need to see a tank or a building like normal weapons. They follow the radar waves sent out by enemy systems. When the radar is found, the missile goes after it. This is why these weapons are often used early in an air attack. When radar is knocked out, aircraft can fly with less danger.
How Rudram-II Finds the Target?
Rudram-II can keep going even if the enemy switches off its radar. This trick is often called “going dark”. Older anti-radiation missiles could lose the target at that point. Rudram-II is made to deal with that problem in a better way.
It first locks on to radar signals from far away. If the radar goes off during the flight, the missile remembers the last place it saw the signal. Then it keeps moving there with help from INS and India’s NavIC system. In the last part of the flight, it also uses an Imaging Infrared seeker to look for heat and shape of the enemy vehicle. This makes it harder for the target to escape.
Rudram-II can fly at hypersonic speed, up to Mach 5.5. That gives enemy crews very little time to react. Moving a radar truck or hiding it fast enough becomes very hard.
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India Joins a Small Group of Nations
Only a limited number of countries have advanced anti-radiation missile technology.
Some well-known examples include:
- AGM-88 HARM of the United States
- AARGM of the United States
- Kh-31P of Russia
- YJ-91 of China
- ALARM missile of the United Kingdom
With the development of the Rudram missile family, India has joined a select group of countries that can design and manufacture radar-seeking missiles using domestic technology.
