The Nirbhay subsonic cruise missile, having a range of around 1,000 km, developed a technical snag during a test firing on Monday at a facility in Odisha, forcing its developer DRDO to abort the trial, official sources said. The missile was test-fired by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from an integrated test range in Balasore in Odisha at around 10:30 AM. “Minutes later, the missile developed a technical snag following which the trial process was aborted. The DRDO is analysing all the details,” said a source. The DRDO has already carried out several successful trials of the ”Nirbhay” missile since October 2014. The state-of-the-art missile, which can be deployed from multiple platforms, has a speed less than that of sound (Mach 0.8). Powered by a solid rocket motor booster developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), the missile has an operational range of 1000 km, officials said. In the last few weeks, India has test-fired a number of missiles including a new version of the surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile BrahMos and anti-radiation missile Rudram-1. India also carried out successful test-firing of a laser-guided anti-tank missile and nuclear-capable hypersonic missile ”Shaurya”. The successful test firing of Rudram-1 is seen as a major milestone as it is India”s first indigenously developed anti-radiation weapon. The flight testing of the missiles comes in the midst of India”s bitter border row with China in eastern Ladakh.
