India’s first subsonic missile all set to be tested for its full range of 1000 km
Country’s first subsonic cruise missile Nirbhay (Fearless) is all set to
be tested for its full range of 1,000 km on Tuesday from Chandipur,
Odisha.
BrahMos is the country’s supersonic cruise missile.
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) technologists said
on Sunday preparations were in full swing for the launch of the
two-stage surface-to-surface missile that uses a turbo-jet engine. The
Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a DRDO facility in
Bangalore, has designed Nirbhay — a derivative of pilotless target
aircraft Lakshya. The Research Centre, Imarat, Hyderabad, has developed
Nirbhay’s crucial avionics while other DRDO laboratories have played
their part in developing it.
Nirbhay, which looks like an aircraft, can drop warheads. It can be
remotely controlled and brought back. In this mission, there are no
plans to recover it or use it to drop warheads.
Nirbhay takes off from a road mobile launcher after a booster engine
kicks the first stage. After the booster separates, the second stage,
which has a turbo-jet engine, cruises at an altitude of 500 metres to
one km. It will travel for a long time at a speed of 0.67 Mach. Aviation
kerosene is the fuel.
“It will cruise in the atmosphere like an aircraft and it is capable of
travelling up to 1,000 km,” said a DRDO missile engineer. “The biggest
advantage with Nirbhay is that it can be launched from land, air and
sea. It is a potent system,” he noted.
