Balasore: India successfully test fired home grown, subsonic cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’ off Odisha coast on Monday.
The 1,000-km range missile was fired for a shorter range from a launch pad from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Balasore district, said informed sources.
Indigenously developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), the Nirbhay missile has a length of 6 metres, width of 0.52 metres, a wing span of 2.7 metres and weighs about 1500kg. It is capable of delivering 24 different types of warheads depending on mission requirements between 200-300kg.
It is a long range, all-weather missile that can be launched from multiple platforms and is capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads. It has so far had at least five successful trials off Odisha coast between 2013 and now.
The last successful test launch of the missile took place in November 2017.
It can travel with a turbofan or turbojet engine and is guided by a highly advanced inertial navigation system.