Second Nirbhay missile test likely by November

[soumya1989]

May 20, 2013: Following the partial success of the Nirbhay subsonic cruise missile on its March 12 debut test, the development team has managed to identify the glitch in the inertial naviation system (INS) that forced them to push the kill button 17 minutes into the flight, following a perfect launch sequence. Defence Minister A.K. Antony confirmed in the Parliament that the problem had been identified and was in the process of being fixed.

DRDO sources reveal that fixing the problem was a learning process, given that the Nirbhay is almost entirely Indian, with all major systems and electronics fully indigenous. They also revealed that a crucial second test could take place by November this year, if all goes well. The March 12 debut test was a partial disappointment since the Nirbhay test was already delayed by at least two years. The Nirbhay will be tested till 2017, following which it will be inducted into the armed forces. An air-launched and ship-launched version will also be developed and tested in tandem.

link

 

[IND151]

hope this time test becomes successful

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

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.

More data on the first launch.

 

[Ayush]

wish for its success...