India successfully test-fires cruise missile Nirbhay

India on Friday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed sub-sonic long range cruise missile, 'Nirbhay' from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Odisha.

"The missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher positioned at launch pad 3 of the Integrated Test Range at about 10.03 hours," said an official soon after the flight took off from the launch ground.

"Flight details will be available after data retrieved from radars and telemetry points, monitoring the trajectories, are analysed," the official said.

It is the second test of the sub-sonic long range cruise missile 'Nirbhay' from the ITR.

The maiden flight, conducted on March 12, 2013 could not achieve all the desired parameters as "the flight had to be terminated mid-way when deviations were observed from its intended course," sources said.

India has in its arsenal the 290 km range supersonic "BrahMos" cruise missile which is jointly developed by India and Russia. But 'Nirbhay' with long range capability is a different kind of missile being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Nirbhay has good loitering capability, good control and guidance, high degree of accuracy in terms of impact and very good stealth features.

Low-flying cruise missiles such as the Nirbhay can easily slip past enemy air-defence systems due to small radar cross section.

The Nirbhay will be configured to be launched from multiple platforms such as land, air and sea.

The missile, which could be compared with the American Tomahawk missile, has a strike range of around 750 to 1,000 km and is expected to supplement the Indo-Russian joint venture supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, which can carry warheads up to 290 km.

While India is yet to have its own technology to develop supersonic or hypersonic cruise missiles, the Missile Technology Control Regime prohibits the signatories from providing technology to any other country developing a cruise missile with a range greater than or equal to 300 km.

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