DRDO successfully test-fires sub-sonic cruise missile 'Nirbhay'. Read details of the test here

India on Monday successfully test-fired its cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’ from a test range in Odisha. It is the country’s first indigenously designed and developed long-range sub-sonic cruise missile.

The state-of-the-art missile, which can be deployed from multiple platforms, was test-fired at 11.44 am from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said.

Describing the trial "successful", they said the missile, which is capable of loitering and cruising at 0.7 Mach at altitude as low as 100 meters, covered the distance to the designated target in 42 minutes and 23 seconds.

The flight test achieved all the mission objectives, right from lift off till the final hit, boosting the confidence of all scientists associated with the trial, sources said, adding that the missile has an engine with rocket booster and turbofan/jet.

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The successful test of the 1,000 km-range missile will, therefore, provide a boost to India's defense power.

The sophisticated missile took off in a programmed manner and all critical operations like launch phase, booster deployment, engine start, wing deployment, and other parameters were demonstrated through autonomous waypoint navigation.

“It is the sixth development flight trial with an objective to prove the repeatability of boost phase, cruise phase using waypoint navigation at very low altitudes. The missile took off vertically turning horizontally into the desired direction, booster separated, the wing deployed, the engine started, cruised all the intended waypoints. The missile demonstrated its sea-skimming capability to cruise at very low altitudes,” wrote the official Facebook page of DRDO.

The missile majestically cruised and covered its given range, the officials from DRDO reported, adding that it was tracked with the help of ground-based radars and other parameters were monitored by indigenous telemetry stations developed by DRDO.

“The entire flight was fully tracked by a chain of Electro-Optical Tracking Systems, Radars and Ground Telemetry Systems deployed all along the sea coast,” read the post further.

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The last successful trial of 'Nirbhay' cruise missile was conducted on November 7, 2017.