DRDO has successfully tested Nirbhay Cruise Missile recently from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Odisha.
Nirbhay is an all-weather low-cost long-range cruise missile with stealth and high accuracy and capable to engage several targets in a single flight.
Nirbhay cruise missile is the India’s first long range sub-sonic cruise missile.
It was the fifth launch of the missile in the last five years along with GPS system.
It has blended missile and aeronautical technologies which allows it to take off vertically like missile and cruise horizontally like an aircraft.
The missile has a range of more than 1000 km.
It is capable of carrying warheads of up to 300kg at a speed of 0.6 to 0.7 Mach (sub-sonic).
It is guided by a highly advanced indigenously developed inertial navigation system.
The Nirbhay cruise missile is an Indian version of the American Tomahawk.
The missile is capable of being launched from multiple platforms on land, sea and air.
Facts
Sub-sonic – Any speed lower than the speed of sound. Mach number greater than 1 is called as super-sonic.
Cruise Missile – It is a guided missile that flies major portion of its flight within atmosphere at approximately constant speed.
Ballistic Missile – It is a missile that follows a ballistic trajectory and guided only relatively during brief periods and spends most of their flight out of the atmosphere.