With the maiden test-firing yesterday of the indigenously-developed,
1,200km-range subsonic Nirbhay (Fearless) nuclear-armed cruise missile
The maiden test-firing was conducted at 11.50am and what followed was a flawless
liftoff, with its first-stage solid-rocket booster separating from the missile-body
after attaining a height of 500 metres at a distance of 1.5km away from the
launch-point. Thereafter, the missile’s sustainer powerplant, a turbofan,
successfully came on-line and took the missile out to an altitude of 4km while
cruising at Mach 0.7. However, some 10 minutes after liftoff, after the missile
had travelled a distance of 200km and cruising at an altitude of 4km along a
southwesterly flight-path skirting India’s eastern seaboard coastline, a deviation
from its pre-programmed flight trajectory was observed due to a suspected
navigational waypoint pre-programming error, following which it was decided
by mission controllers located at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at
Chandipur-on-Sea to abort the flight-test to ensure coastal safety by cutting
off the missile’s engine power.
Despite this temporary setback, a number of mission objectives were achieved
from this maiden test-launch of Nirbhay. Firstly, the robustness of the missile’s
airframe and that of its two-stage propulsion system was proven beyond doubt,
as was the reliability of the inertial navigation system and flight-control system.
Secondly, this was the first time in the history of the MoD-owned Defence Research
& Development Organisation (DRDO) that a real-time, combined RF/optronic
flight trajectory-cum missile health tracking system was successfully employed
for the Nirbhay's maiden cruise flight. (what is RF/optronic ? can any one explain plz.)
inputs from the Nirbhay’s specially configured on-board flight management
avionics (these being located in the forward-mounted bulkheads designed for
housing the digital terrain profile matching sensor and the warhead), and also
for relaying flight termination commands in case of mission abort.
In addition, the Su-30MKI also carried a FLIR sensor-equipped Litening-2 LDP for real-time
visual tracking and monitoring of the Nirbhay’s cruise flight. (show us the visuals recording DRDO - just jocking)
There are still nine more planned flight-tests of the Nirbhay through to 2017. (Do it earliar and more earliar also test some stealthy designs)The
first two are meant for validating the robustness of the missile’s airframe and that
of its two-stage propulsion system (and hence are not equipped with digital terrain
profile matching sensor and warheads. The next two, also to be conducted from
ITR, will seek to validate the Nirbhay’s flight management system, inclusive of the
digital terrain profile matching sensor (an X-band SAR).
A hybrid inertial navigation system using a ring-laser gyro (RINS) coupled
with a GPS receiver and a digital radar altimeter (all developed by the DRDO’s
Research centre Imarat, or RCI, and integrated jointly by the Advanced Systems
Laboratory, or ASL, and the Aeronautical Development Establishment, or ADE) will
provide a CEP of 20 metres. All on-board avionics, inclusive of the ones mentioned
above, plus the mission computer and missile interface unit, have been developed
as spinoffs from the BrahMos-1 supersonic multi-role cruise missile’s R & D cycle,
which lasted between 1998 and 2005.
While the ASQRs and NSQRs for the nuclear-armed Nirbhay were drafted by 2005,
hands-on R & D work began in only 2007, with all R & D-related activity due for
completion by late 2017. Following the entry into service of the nuclear-armed
Nirbhay’s ALCM and SLCM versions, India’s Strategic Forces Command (SFC) will
have at its disposal four distinct types of highly survivable nuclear warhead delivery
systems that will be optimised for retaliatory nuclear strikes, these being the
4,500km-range SLBM now under development, the 600km-range air-launched
supersonic LRCM that is also now under development (for delivering tactical nuclear
warheads), plus the Nirbhay’s ALCM and SLCM versions, both of which will be able
to deliver boosted-fission nuclear warheads.
Why we are getting all informations why DRDO not hide informations like China.we hardly get any Info of Chinese weapons. even not the size of its fighters?
