India's first home-grown Nirbhay missile ready to strike next week

After two consecutive failures, the Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and chairman Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), S Christopher on Sunday said that the test of Nirbhay missile will be done by next week.

''Test of Nirbhay missile (India's first home-grown, long range, subsonic cruise missile) will be next week,'' DRDO Chairman S Christopher said.

Nirbhay will be tested using a turbojet engine for the first time. Meanwhile, the DRDO scientists are expecting a success this time as wing deployment and navigation software problems, detected during the pre-launch check-ups in May which led to its postponement, seem to have been rectified.

Nirbhay's last trial was conducted on December 21, 2016 and it was aborted midway as the missile changed its course.

Nuclear-capable Nirbhay cruise missile:

India has developed all its missiles at DRDO's Missile Complex in Hyderabad and Nirbhay is the first Made-in-Bangalore-missile. ADE was granted the project owing to its expertise in developing unmanned aerial platforms such as Lakshya, Nishant and Rustom.

The six-metre long two-stage missile can strike a target 1,000 km away. With a diameter of 0.52 metres and wing span of 2.7 metres, it weighs around 1,500 kg and can carry warheads up to 200 kg. Comparable with America's Tomahawk missile as far as the stealth capability, it can cruise at a speed of Mach 0.8.

OneIndia News