Fearless Tomahawk-type missile on radar

[Adux]

Fearless Tomahawk-type missile on radar
SUJAN DUTTA

A Tomahawk missile
New Delhi, July 19: Indian defence scientists have taken up a new cruise missile development programme. The missile named Nirbhay (The Fearless) is in the same class as the US’s Tomahawk and will have a range that is 300km longer than Pakistan’s Babur.

Nirbhay is India’s seventh missile development project after the Agni series, the Prithvi series, Brahmos (in a joint venture with Russia), Akash, Trishul and Nag. The last three were part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme founded by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Nirbhay is being developed alongside Astra, an air-to-air missile designed to hit targets beyond visual range.

A cruise missile can be guided to a target. A ballistic missile is fired at a pre-determined target. Nirbhay will carry onboard a terrain-identification system that will map its course and relay the information to its guidance and propulsion systems.

“Every modern military needs to have missile options. The requirement for Nirbhay was projected by all three armed forces to fill a gap in our missile programme,” Avinash Chander, the director of the Advanced Systems Laboratory, Hyderabad, who is in charge of the project, told The Telegraph in Delhi today.

Nirbhay will be a terrain-hugging missile capable of avoiding detection by ground-based radar. It would have a range of 1,000km.

“We have Brahmos, which is a supersonic cruise missile and the need was felt for a subsonic cruise missile that will be capable of being launched from multiple platforms in land, air and sea,” Chander said.

In the schedule drawn up for Nirbhay, a technology demonstrator is slotted for early 2009. Chander said the design for the system is complete and “hardware preparations are on”. He said Nirbhay would weigh around 1,000kg and travel at 0.7 mach (nearly 840kmph) and would be capable of delivering 24 different types of warheads.

The Pakistani subsonic cruise missile Babur (also called Hatf VII) has ranges of 500 to 700km. The US’s Tomahawk has many versions, the latest of which has ranges in excess of 1,500km.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070720/asp/nation/story_8080771.asp

 

[Awesome]

And which country is India's partner on this?

 

[blain2]

Also settles the debate about Supersonic vs. subsonic ALCM/SLCM/LACM....subsonic provides much greater flexibility and accurate targeting capability. I doubt that Brahmos will see any further range enhancements as the size would have to be enlarged beyond what it is to carry additional fuel (the existing size of Brahmos in itself is pushing the limits of load for ALCM configuration on the Su-30 platforms of the IAF).

Also not sure how Fearless would have a 300 km advantage on Babur when a 1K range version is already under development and has been spoken about by Musharraf himself?

 

[Awesome]

Well they have the license to compare their future missile concepts with our existing missiles.

 

[Adux]

And which country is India's partner on this?

Oh the Indians are soo stupid arent they.

 

[blitz]

First of all Blain, super-sonic AShMs are any day superior to their sub-sonic counter parts. All latest Russian AShMs go super sonic in their terminal phase, even if they are subsonic initially.
Secondly, super-sonic CMs make bad land attack weapons, not because of their lack of effectiveness, but because of pure cost vs benefit analysis. They are too sophisticated and expensive, to be used against buildings that do not use counter measure.

Missile like Brahmos are 'silver bullet' weapons, not saturation. Missiles like Babur, are saturation strike weapons.

Secondly, what kind of name is "Fearless" ?? laaaaaaame

 

[con]

Also settles the debate about Supersonic vs. subsonic ALCM/SLCM/LACM....subsonic provides much greater flexibility and accurate targeting capability. I doubt that Brahmos will see any further range enhancements as the size would have to be enlarged beyond what it is to carry additional fuel (the existing size of Brahmos in itself is pushing the limits of load for ALCM configuration on the Su-30 platforms of the IAF).

Also not sure how Fearless would have a 300 km advantage on Babur when a 1K range version is already under development and has been spoken about by Musharraf himself?

There will be another one in the series of Brahmos. Brahmos is meant for highly defended,high value target. A subsonic missile is a cost effective way of handling large number of target.
The debate was about subsonic versus supersonic ASHM... not ALCM/SLCM. It is just that Brahmos was modified to be a LACM from a ASHM.

 

[Awesome]

Oh the Indians are soo stupid arent they.

Oh you still talk like this?

I just meant what I asked.

 

[Bull]

Well they have the license to compare their future missile concepts with our existing missiles.

Like comparing PAF's JF-17 and J-10 and nkl 52 F-16 to the our present MKIs.

 

[Bull]

And which country is India's partner on this?

We also only read those very lines you read in the newsclip.

 

[Awesome]

Like comparing PAF's JF-17 and J-10 and nkl 52 F-16 to the our present MKIs.

lol those planes already exist!

 

[Bull]

lol those planes already exist!

With PAF...???

 

[Awesome]

F-22 doesn't have to exist with PAF for me to call it better than the MKI.

And yes JF-17s with the PAF now.

 

[Bull]

F-22 doesn't have to exist with PAF for me to call it better than the MKI..

F-22 with PAF!!! Imaginations / dreams shud have its limit dude.lol

And yes JF-17s with the PAF now.

Yeah right. Those oyu call planes, rather 2 frames. What do they have on them? What radars? What weapons?

 

[joey]

Also settles the debate about Supersonic vs. subsonic ALCM/SLCM/LACM....subsonic provides much greater flexibility and accurate targeting capability. I doubt that Brahmos will see any further range enhancements as the size would have to be enlarged beyond what it is to carry additional fuel (the existing size of Brahmos in itself is pushing the limits of load for ALCM configuration on the Su-30 platforms of the IAF).

Also not sure how Fearless would have a 300 km advantage on Babur when a 1K range version is already under development and has been spoken about by Musharraf himself?

Beg to Disagree, For Anti-Shipping role Supersonic missiles to me posesses a decisive advantage over subsonic, West did not fielded any same because the doctrine they follows dows not calls for the need of such.

This missile will serve against Land attack role. I have lost the link but will put it up of Why Brahmos was chosen by IN.

As of range increase of Brahmos, it isnt needed, nor it will be done or can be done as you said, The range itself is more than that of the reported range though, a Brahmos 2 will be Possibly a Ram-Scram missile but is long way off.

As of Baburs range increase, the range increase from 500 to 700 itself is doubtful (to me atleast) If it uses turbojet propulsion, If it uses turbofan propulsion it is fine.

And which country is India's partner on this?

I can talk a lot about this, bar I didnt get with what entitity your question was raised, However India is developing its own Engine for the same with thrust of around 2.25 KN and developement has started long back. Though the timeline of 2009 seems a bit optimistic to me.

It is clear that Sagarika is a SLBM though still I will wait for more reports to surface before concluding anything.