DRDO draws inspiration from aborted Nirbhay mission | Next launch in 8 mont

[bloo]

DRDO draws inspiration from aborted Nirbhay mission | Next launch in 8 months: Avinash | Intentionally missile flown closer to coast for tracking: Sources

By Anantha Krishnan M
Express News Service

Bangalore: Nirbhay, India’s first subsonic cruise missile had a bad outing on Tuesday, after scientists terminated its maiden test-firing 20-minutes into its mission. Celebrated as Bangalore’s first missile, Nirbhay travelled almost 250 km towards the target after the launch, but a technical snag dented its designated flight path, forcing the Range Safety Wing at the Interim Test Range (ITR) in Balasore to abort the mission. (Termination or abortion is done by switching off the engine.)
Designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) in C V Raman Nagar, Nirbhay’s failure is now being dubbed as ‘partial success’ by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). “The lift-off from the canister, the booster separation, ignition of cruise vehicle engine at high altitude, wing deployment, control guidance and way-point navigation capabilities have been proven. For a missile designers these are crucial milestones achieved,” Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO told Express from Bhuvaneshwar.
He claimed that for a first flight, the objectives achieved are encouraging. “We were able to launch it as a missile first, then convert show its longevity as an aircraft. We will study what went wrong and get back with another missile within six-eight months so as to go the full distance. We have enough data from this flight and we have tested all stages of the missile, which was very crucial,” Avinash said.
A top source who didn’t want to be identified said that the missile was travelling closer to the Odhisa cost. “We intentionally designated the path closer to the coast so that we could track it. But when it started deviating, we had to abort the mission taking into account the safety of the coast. It will take a week to assess which part malfunctioned and the initial data analysis will tell us more,” the official said.
ADE Director P S Krishnan said that his team will ensure that everything falls in place next time. “Nirbhay met 90 per cent of its mission parameters. It was the first test and we will quickly find out from the data which part gave up. We will fix it and prove the missile’s full-duration (1000 km) capabilities,” Krishnan said.
DRDO’s decision to go undercover till the launch of the missile is attributed mainly to the snub it received for letting out too many details of sensitive projects. A senior military intelligence official said that DRDO was warned twice in the recent past, a fact Express couldn't verify independently.Copyright@The New Indian Express.

Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: DRDO draws inspiration from aborted Nirbhay mission | Next launch in 8 months: Avinash | Intentionally missile flown closer to coast for tracking: Sources

 

[Hulk]

It is actually good news when you know 9 out of 10 components worked well.

 

[bloo]

Maiden Test-Firing Of India’s Nirbhay Strategic Subsonic Cruise Missile A Moderate Success

From Trishul Blogspot
P.K. Sengupta

With the maiden test-firing yesterday of the indigenously-developed, 1,200km-range subsonic Nirbhay (Fearless) nuclear-armed cruise missile (which will eventually be available in both air-launched and submarine-launched versions), India took the first significant baby-steps toward fielding what will eventually—by 2017--become a family of multi-role subsonic cruise missiles available to both the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Navy (IN). 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, which led to the missile safely gliding down and crashing at the coastline of Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district. This should not be surprising at all, since this has been a global norm in the history of long-range cruise missile R & D. For instance, the maiden flight-test of Pakistan’s 800km-range Hatf–VII (Babur) could fly out to only a distance of 17km on August 12, 2005, while its second test-firing saw the Babur attain a range of only 22km on March 22, 2007.

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. This was done by equipping an IAF Su-30MKI chase-aircraft (out from Kalaikunda AFS) with a centreline pod containing tele-command guidance avionics (designed and developed by the Defence Avionics Research Establishment) that was responsible for receiving health-monitoring 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.

There are still nine more planned flight-tests of the Nirbhay through to 2017. 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). The following two will involve the fully integrated missile being test-fired (one over land & one over the sea) from a Su-30MKI, which will be followed by two SLCM versions being test-fired (one over land and one over the sea) from a submerged SSBN, the S-2/Arihant. The final two test-firings will involve fully integrated Nirbhays armed with live conventional warheads, with one being launched from a Su-30MKI and the other from the S-2/Arihant.

The Nirbhay’s nuclear warhead-armed ALCM version (minus the solid-rocket booster) will be qualified for use by 20 specially customised Su-30MKIs, while the nuclear warhead-armed SLCM variant (incorporating the solid-rocket booster) will go on board the S-2, S-3 and S-4 SSBNs. The air-launched and nuclear-armed Nirbhay will have a length of 6 metres, diameter of 0.55 metres, wingspan of 2.7 metres, launch mass of 1,200kg, cruise speed of Mach 0.7, and a 250kg warhead-section. Its cruising altitude over water will be 10 metres (33 feet), while its cruising altitude over land will be 30 metres (98 feet). The MoD-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s (HAL) Bengaluru-based Engine Test Bed Research & Development Centre (ETBRDC) has developed a turbofan for powering all members of the Nirbhay cruise missile family. 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.

A spinoff from this programme is the development of a smaller, conventional warhead-armed air-launched variant of Nirbhay with a range of 750km, which will be qualified for launch from combat aircraft like the Su-30MKI, DARIN 3-standard Jaguar IS as well as Rafale M-MRCA. Presently, there are no plans for developing submarine-launched or surface-launched versions of this missile, which will have a length of 6.2 metres, diameter of 0.6 metres, launch mass of 1,350kg, a 400kg HE blast-fragmentation warhead, cruising altitude of 20 metres over land, cruise speed of 240 metres/second, target aspect angle of +/-180 degrees, and a launch altitude varying between 500 metres and 11,000 metres. The hybrid inertial navigation system will ensure autonomous navigation via at least 15 waypoints, while for terminal guidance, use will be made of a noise-immune guidance system that will employ an X-band monopulse SAR radar similar to the one now being developed for both the BrahMos-1’s Blocks-2/3 and the Prahaar NLOS-BSM. The conventionally-armed ALCM variant of Nirbhay will thus be procured in large numbers (exceeding 700) by both the IAF and the IN.

Lastly, here is a revelation for those congenital retards hailing from India’s ‘desi’ print/electronic media who had claimed recently that 36MT turbofans or HAL-built PTAE-7 turbojets would power the Nirbhay cruise missile. Guess what! The two slides below from NPO Saturn clearly state that the 36MT turbofan was never meant to power long-range cruise missiles and neither does it power cruise missiles like Novator’s 3M14E or 3M54E.

TRISHUL: Maiden Test-Firing Of India’s Nirbhay Strategic Subsonic Cruise Missile A Moderate Success

 

[President]

Rome was not built in a day!

 

[indian_foxhound]

its a rocket science. Plus we arent going for war like tomorrow...

 

[Safriz]

Ajay Shukla does it again...
Things i wanted to know....
Such as why the missile was flying at 4000 meters for today's test?

For ease of monitoring and....
Because this time there was no terrain hugging systems onboard for today's test.

The missile will finally be inducted in 2017.

The seemingly larger size and resultant extra fuel carrying capacity can be used in two ways.
One for shorter range and then loitering over a target,
Or for longer range direct to a target.

DRDO has developed a radio optical system for monitoring the flight path of the missile.


On Babur the missile path is mainly monitored via Beidou satellite.

 

[proud_indian]

Ajay Shukla does it again...
Things i wanted to know....
Such as why the missile was flying at 4500 feet for today's test?
Because this time there was no terrain hugging systems onboard for today's test.

The missile will finally be inducted in 2017.

The seemingly larger size and resultant extra fuel carrying capacity can be used in two ways.
One for shorter range and then loitering over a target,
Or for longer range direct to a target.

DRDO has developed a radio optical system for monitoring the flight path of the missile.


On Babur the missile path is mainly monitored via Beidou satellite.

it's not ajai shukla; it's prasun k sengupta and Anantha Krishnan

 

[Safriz]

it's not ajai shukla; it's prasun k sengupta and Anantha Krishnan

Isnt Trishul blog written by Ajay?

 

[Ammyy]

^^^^ They said that by 2017 all versions (air, land, sea) will be ready to use.

 

[narcon]

On Babur the missile path is mainly monitored via Beidou satellite.

It has a limited range only closer to China and Asia pacific.
The full fledged system is yet to start!

Isnt Trishul blog written by Ajay?

Ajay is broadsword
Trishul is sengupta.

 

[Safriz]

It has a limited range only closer to China and Asia pacific.
The full fledged system is yet to start!


Ajay is broadsword
Trishul is sengupta.

Radio optronic system is even more restricting.....
Such as used by DRDO.
Things migt change later with the job designated to a satellite.

 

[Ammyy]

Article said

The MoD-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s (HAL) Bengaluru-based Engine Test Bed Research & Development Centre (ETBRDC) has developed a turbofan for powering all members of the Nirbhay cruise missile family.

When these engine will be ready to use?

 

[Safriz]

Article said




When these engine will be ready to use?

Obviously more than one type of engines are available for Nirbhay,or today's test wouldnt have been possible.
HAL can take their time...

 

[narcon]

Radio optronic system is even more restricting.....
Such as used by DRDO.
Things migt change later with the job designated to a satellite.

What is Radio Optronic?
Till then babur is rudderless

Obviously more than one type of engines are available for Nirbhay,or today's test wouldnt have been possible.
HAL can take their time...

Where does it say that HAL makes them?

 

[Safriz]

What is Radio Optronic?
Till then babur is rudderless

Observation by radio waves,such as radar, observation by optical meand such as chase plane and telescopes,and electronics such as onboard sensors sendinb out data.
"Radio optronics".