The anti-ship version, which can be fired from a shore-based transporter erector launcher (TEL), is the first variant that is undergoing developmental trials for the Indian Navy.

Although funding was insufficient for large-scale testing and system engineering, there has been a notable advancement in the field of computational fluid dynamics, which is essential for building hypersonic vehicles.

[8] The Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh formally inaugurated the ₹400 crore, Hypersonic Wind Tunnel (HWT) test facility at the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex on December 19, 2020.

[13][14] In February 2024, IIT Kanpur built and evaluated the Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel Test Facility, referred to as S2, in the Department of Aerospace Engineering's Hypersonic Experimental Aerodynamics Laboratory (HEAL).

[15][16] The 2020 test of HSTDV validated aerodynamic configuration of vehicle, ignition and sustained combustion of scramjet engine at hypersonic flow, separation mechanisms and characterised thermo-structural materials.

[19][20] In September 2022, reports revealed that DRDO had completed the design of a 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) range conventionally armed ballistic missile with an anti-ship variant, intended to deter land or sea-based threats, and was awaiting approval to initiate development from the Cabinet Committee on Security.

[22] In 2024, it was reported that the LRAShM and its land-based variant would form a part of the proposed Integrated Rocket Force along with Pralay, BrahMos, Nirbhay and Pinaka MBRL.

According to Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Nuclear Policy Program, the test is a developmental step, depending on whether the technology gets approval from the government and whether it will culminate to affordable procurement plans.

Indian strategists were considering the issue of guarantee future retaliation due to China's increasing mid-course missile defense capabilities which makes hypersonic payloads attractive.