NEW DELHI - India's first indigenously-designed and -developed long-range subsonic cruise missile Nirbhay was successfully flight-tested October 17 from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Balasore, Odisha. The entire mission, from lift-off till the final splash-down, was a perfect flight achieving all the mission objectives.
The cruise missile Nirbhay, powered by a solid rocket motor booster developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) took off majestically from a mobile launcher specifically designed for Nirbhay by the Vehicles R&D Establishment.
As it achieved designated altitude and velocity, the booster motor separated, the turbofan engine automatically switched on taking over the further propulsion and the wings opened up by the commands generated by the onboard computer (OBC) stabilizing the flight. Guided by a highly advanced inertial navigation system indigenously developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI) the Nirbhay continued its flight that lasted a little over 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Throughout its path, the missile was tracked with the help of ground based radars and its health parameters were monitored by indigenous telemetry stations by team of professionals from DRDO's ITR and LRDE (Electronics & Radar Development Establishment). Additionally, the performance of Nirbhay was closely watched by an Indian Air Force aircraft.
"The missile maintained an accuracy better than 10 meters throughout its path and covered a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers," said Dr Avinash Chander after the mission's completion. "The successful indigenous development of Nirbhay cruise missile will fill a vital gap in the war fighting capabilities of our armed forces."
The 1,000-kilometer range cruise missile with the capability to strike deep into enemy territory has been designed and developed by the ADE (Aeronautical Development Establishment) based in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The missile is yet another giant step forward in India's technological capabilities for design development and leading to production state of the art weapons platforms and equipment for country's armed forces.
This was the second launch of Nirbhay cruise missile. The maiden launch last year on March12 was a partial success achieving most of its mission objectives. The maiden flight had to be terminated for safety reasons due to malfunction of a component, after a deviation from the intended path was observed.
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