Nirbhay: Getting Battle Ready

[shree835]

Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) developed India’s first Long range Sub-sonic cruise missiles after making a flawless test flight last year from a Truck based Mobile launcher is all set to expand its launch platforms in future.

Nirbhay which means fearless will be operated by Tri services of the Indian armed forces opening up multiple tactical options for military operations in foreseeable future. 8-metre long-range cruise missile (LCAM) developed on the operational profile of American Tomahawk and Russian kH-55 cruise missiles will be part of larger Sub-sonic cruise missile family designed to be operationalised from multiple launch platforms.

Nirbhay in its last test flight flew for over one hour at a distance of more than 1000 km and covered 16 waypoints while maintaining an accuracy of 10 m throughout its flight time. Missile at final stage even demonstrated steep dive capability before taking out its targets. ADE is now working on adding a seeker for terminal guidance to achieve Circular Error Probability (CEP) of 1-2 meters in future tests.

Navy and DRDO have agreed to have the first developmental flight of Naval Variant of Nirbhay cruise missile in 2018 which will be launched from an Indian Naval ship. A vertical launching system (VLS) for holding and firing Nirbhay cruise missiles from mobile naval platforms is under development and will feature ” Hot Launch ” vertical launch system which require lesser developmental time. The missile itself will not require any major hardware changes but will require new software block for use from naval ships.

ADE is also working on Airforce variant which can be used from same BrahMos ALCM Launcher which will enable the air force to use Nirbhay ALCM minus its Solid-propellant booster from 42 Specially modified Su-30MKI aircrafts. ADE also has plans to develop Smaller ALCM based on Nirbhay which will be shorter in length by 25 % also has reduced range but can be integrated on other air force fighter jets without any special modification to the airframe .

DRDO has taken up the task to introduce Anti-radiation seeker in future to further complicate air defense mechanism of enemy forces. Nirbhay which is Capable of flying at a tree-top altitude for over 1,000 km and can stay 5meters below ground-based radar observation coverage will play a crucial role in “cold start” offensive doctrine put forward by Indian military planners for use in a possible war with Pakistan.

Nirbhay missile is intended to form a base upon which many variants will be developed in future establishing India’s Cruise missile family. Nirbhay which was born out of India armies requirement will serve Tri-services and India also plans to develop more powerful sub-sonic cruise missiles with longer range in future and also carry out incremental Block upgrades to existing systems to further open up missiles potentials.

Nirbhay: Getting Battle Ready | idrw.org

 

[HariPrasad]

Nirbhay is a potent weapon and shall prove to be a headache to our enemy. Saraswat told that it has an accuracy of sub meter and strike accurately without even satellite guidance.

 

[sathya]

2018 for navy ?
Air Force variant may take even longer time..
After bhramos gets tested, nirbhay should get done ASAP .
I am Hearing about Air Force variant of bhramos for a very long time.. Now even the voices which kept repeating about testfire have died down.. Like from sivathanu pillai.

 

[HariPrasad]

Air Force variant may take even longer time..

It was to be tested from MKI in March. Seem to have delayed. I think air force version should come first.

 

[Makaramarma]

Firing of Live Nirbhay from IN ships in 2018, so Which ship are they going to use and how many Nirbhay will it carry

 

[deckingraj]

It was to be tested from MKI in March. Seem to have delayed. I think air force version should come first.

reason being??

 

[HariPrasad]

reason being??

Beacuse the Airforec verson is going to be tested shortly. Whether Air to Surface or surface to surface, Target is still and delivery platforms are different. To target ship, a total different mechanism is required. Here you need to chase the ship.

 

[RISING SUN]

Firing of Live Nirbhay from IN ships in 2018, so Which ship are they going to use and how many Nirbhay will it carry

P15B class destroyers will have 8 Nirbhay long range strike cruise missiles apart from 16 Bramhos missiles. It already stated in past multiple times.

 

[deckingraj]

Beacuse the Airforec verson is going to be tested shortly. Whether Air to Surface or surface to surface, Target is still and delivery platforms are different. To target ship, a total different mechanism is required. Here you need to chase the ship.

Are you suggesting that they have stopped working on Air-force version and concentrating on Naval??

 

[sathya]

It was to be tested from MKI in March. Seem to have delayed. I think air force version should come first.

Can be, for Bhramos we had to modify Sukhoi, which is taking its sweet time..
now that nirbhay can be launched from same pylon, it can be test fired earlier ..

however i am talking about the low weight Nirbhay like the Bhramos -M , which will be developed later on ,

i am guessing development will be
LACM --> Ship LCM --> Air LCM(heavy) --> Sub LCM --> Air LCM(light)


Good thing for Nirbhay is both Sukhoi 30 and Arihant sub will be ready by the time missile is developed.