Nirbhay missile, India’s first home-grown subsonic cruise missile was successfully test-launched from the Interim Test Range in Chandipur, near Balasore in Orissa.
This is Nirbhay’s second launch, the first being terminated mid-way on 12 March 2013 owing to a technical snag. Nirbhay, with an expected strike range of 800-1000 km, is the first missile being made completely in Bangalore. Must-know points about India’s Nirbhay or ‘fearless missile’:
- It is a sub-sonic cruise missile. It blasts off like a rocket, but then unlike a missile, it turns into an aircraft. Unlike other ballistic missiles like the Agni, Nirbhay has wings and pronounced tail fins.
- In early flight after launch, the rocket motor falls off and the small wings get deployed.
- At this point, a gas turbine engine kicks in and it becomes like a full aircraft.
- The Nirbhay missile is very maneuverable and can fly at ttree-top level making it difficult to detect on radar.
- Once near the target, it can even hover, strikings at will from any direction.
- It can strike targets more than 700 km away carrying nuclear warheads, giving India the capability to strike deep into enemy territory.
- It gives India the capacity to launch different kinds of payloads at different ranges from various platforms at a very low cost. It can be launched from a mobile launcher.
- The Nirbhay missile has a fire-and-forget system that cannot be jammed.
- It is India’s answer to America’s Tomahawk and Pakistan’s Babur missile. The US had deployed cruise missiles very effectively during the Gulf War.
- The Nirbhay missile is similar to the US Tomahawks, which can fly like an aircraft and capable of travelling up to 1,000 km.
- India has made ballistic missile and tactical missiles of different capacity but is yet to master the making of a cruise missile.
- The missile was nurtured at the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s premier laboratory Aeronautical Development Establishment in Bangalore’s C V Raman Nagar.
- The cost of one missile is Rs 10 crore.
- It has good loitering capability, good control and guidance, a high degree of accuracy in terms of impact and very good stealth features.
- It can fly at tree-top level making it difficult to detect on radar and as it approaches the target, the missile can determine the point of impact while hovering over the target.
- It gives India the capacity to launch different kinds of payloads at different ranges from various platforms at a very low cost. It can be launched from a mobile launcher.
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