Posts Tagged Cruise Missile fails

NEW DELHI: The much-hyped stealth ‘Nirbhay’ cruise missile, in the making for at least seven years now, failed in its maiden test on Tuesday. The over 1,000-km range missile, which can carry nuclear warheads, in fact, had to be destroyed in mid-air after it deviated from its flight path along the coast in [COLOR=#0000FF !important]Bay of Bengal[/COLOR].

However, DRDO took pains to emphasize that the first test of Nirbhay (fearless) — touted to be in the same class as the famous American Tomahawk missiles and an effective answer to Pakistan’s Babur land-attack cruise missile (LACM) — was not an abject failure.

“The missile was successfully launched from [COLOR=#0000FF !important]the Chandipur launch complex[/COLOR] off [COLOR=#0000FF !important]the Odisha coast[/COLOR]around 11.50 am. It met the basic mission objectives successfully. After travelling approximately midway, deviations were observed from its intended course at a waypoint. The missile was then put in the self-destruct mode to ensure coastal safety,” a DRDO source said.

“The missile flew for around 200 km, proving 90% of [COLOR=#0000FF !important]the critical technologies[/COLOR]. We will analyze what went wrong, undertake corrective action and then conduct another test,” he added.

All this does not detract from the fact that the failure of the sub-sonic missile, which flies at 0.6 to 0.7 Mach, is [COLOR=#0000FF !important]a serious setback[/COLOR] to India’s ambition to soon brandish a long-range, nuclear-capable LACM.

The strike range of the already-inducted BrahMos cruise missile, while supersonic with a speed of Mach 2.8, is just about 300 km. Moreover, neither is BrahMos as “highly-maneuverable” as Nirbhay is designed to be, nor can it “loiter” before homing into the target.

But on Tuesday, the two-stage Nirbhay, which was being tracked by radars, warships and even a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter, developed snags in its “inertial navigation and control systems” just over 15 minutes after being launched from a road-mobile launcher.

The armed forces have been demanding nuclear-tipped LACMs, with strike ranges over 1,500 km, for a long time. While ballistic missiles like the Agni follow a parabolic trajectory, terrain-hugging cruise missiles do not leave the atmosphere and are powered and guided throughout their flight path.

Capable of evading enemy radars and air defence systems since they fly at low altitudes, even at tree-top level, cruise missiles are also much cheaper as well as more accurate and easier to operate than ballistic missiles.

Nirbhay, which deploys wings and tail fins to fly like an aircraft after being initially launched with the help of a solid-propellant booster rocket engine, has been designed to be a “universal missile” like Brahmos. That is, it’s capable of being fired from land, air, warships and submarines.

“Since Nirbhay flies at a slow speed at low altitudes, enemy radars can mistake it for a bird over land or a wave over sea. After separation of the booster motor, the main missile flies like an unmanned aircraft… it can fly at tree-top level and maneuver around hills,” the DRDO source said.

A military officer, however, said, “Nirbhay still has a lot of foreign components… its turbofan, for instance, is imported. It’s still five-six years away from becoming fully operational.”