Nirbhay Cruise Missile Development

[Rushil51]

Now Hindu is reporting the same news. Sad to see all this. Few heads need to roll.

 

[airtel]

Hemant Rout is most reliable reporter on missile tests. He had also reported that Feb 16 Prithvi 2 missile test failed to reach desired accuracy (although missile dropped its warhead)

Thats it.... All are reporting based on tits and bits from one or another. There is nothing official out as of now. So lets wait for some official declaration to come out. As of now, it seems majority are reporting its success.

no official conformation means it was only a partial success .

not a good news.

 

[warrior monk]

Thats it.... All are reporting based on tits and bits from one or another. There is nothing official out as of now. So lets wait for some official declaration to come out. As of now, it seems majority are reporting its success.

Actually nobody knew we were doing a Nirbhay test today before Hemant Rout reported it . Yesterday he reported about the preparation of ITR for Nirbhay test and then others started reporting it.
He also is the first one who said we are soon going to do an Agni-V test within a month or so then others started reporting it.
This itself proves either all the missile test were lies or DRDO ITR only trusts this guy for regular tests. This proves DRDO dosen't have an official press team for reporting .
Bro I want this test to be successful but lets not become like Pakis or Chinese who lie about their tests.

The Babur test recently done was probably a reply for today's Nirbhay as India would have informed them beforehand of Nirbhay test so Pakis tested their reverse engineered Tomahawk BGM 109A aka Babur.

 

[reddevil9]

damn!! Indra network claims to confirm the news of nirbhay's failed test, they just posted it on Fb.

 

[hit&run]

Such a shame that they are taking donkey years to produce primitive platform that has been in use for many decades by many nations.

The misery gets worst when engines used is of foreign origin with basic design being generic.

I remember last time I saw some technicians without proper uniform, crowded inside a not so high tech workshop, standing besides a bulky looking missiles having frugal looks with cheap paint on it using screw drivers on panels, looking at camera lenses, and faking it.

 

[lupgain]

What i don't understand we already have functional/ Tested BrahMos which is a cruise missile and going to be inducted soon on IAF soon... how can DRDO fail on Nirbhaya... ain't 80% of assembly used for both missiles is going to be the same?
The Hindu says that
On Wednesday afternoon, after the missile took off from Launch Complex-III of the ITR, it did not follow the required flight path.
“The booster engine in Nirbhay's first stage started working. The missile lifted off from its launcher. But it started veering dangerously towards one side in less than two minutes of its lift-off,” DRDO officials said.
The missile started flying beyond the safety corridor and threatened to fall on the land. So the “destruct” mechanism in its first stage was activated and it was destroyed.

It could be hardware failure is what DRDO has to say about today's failed test.. Seriously?!!!

Lets hope they fix this issue next time

 

[sayareakd]

Rout strikes again...........................................

 

[hit&run]

What i don't understand we already have functional/ Tested BrahMos which is a cruise missile and going to be inducted soon on IAF soon... how can DRDO fail on Nirbhaya... ain't 80% of assembly used for both missiles is going to be the same?
The Hindu says that
On Wednesday afternoon, after the missile took off from Launch Complex-III of the ITR, it did not follow the required flight path.
“The booster engine in Nirbhay's first stage started working. The missile lifted off from its launcher. But it started veering dangerously towards one side in less than two minutes of its lift-off,” DRDO officials said.
The missile started flying beyond the safety corridor and threatened to fall on the land. So the “destruct” mechanism in its first stage was activated and it was destroyed.

It could be hardware failure is what DRDO has to say about today's failed test.. Seriously?!!!

Lets hope they fix this issue next time

They need more tests in short succession. I wonder if they have proper labs to validate the design on computers. The way they are testing each after a year it it may take 7-8 years before the end user would start inducting them.

When ever I see such failures I see a scam because it will prompt the end user to buy yet another foreign missile. Now after MTCR Generals will find it easy to pressurize the government to buy off the shelf cruise missiles. Heck we have already spend billions buying Harpoons etc.

I can easily predict Nirbhya program will be put on slow burner before someone find another way of scamming and restarting it.

 

[abingdonboy]

Chill everyone, failures are to be expected. maybe we have all got too used to success but these things happen in R&D efforts, remember when the PSLV used to crash reguarly or the GSLV and yet now both are very reliable.

The important thing is not to lose focus or hope, learn from failures and move ahead, the DRDO has performed very well in recent history and I have faith they will iron out the issues in time.

 

[Rahul Singh]

Such a shame that they are taking donkey years to produce primitive platform that has been in use for many decades by many nations.

The misery gets worst when engines used is of foreign origin with basic design being generic.

LACM is anything but generic. It's one of the most difficult among tactical missiles to perfect. Just look at the small turbofan which has to sustain a 0.7 mach speed at terrain hugging altitudes while sucking air out of a very small vent for a 1000 km range. Airframe --which can't have many controls like an UAV-- has to maintain pin point accuracy through many way-points while encountering different weather conditions making controllability- a big challenge. Navigation -- in absence of military level GPS assistance-- is probably the most difficult part in any LACM design to perfect. Here even a minute error in INS or simply a rough weather condition in route could throw a LACM miles away from its desired target.

A LACM is more like an fully autonomous UAV with a warhead. And any country's success in developing such a system depends upon its success in field of UAVs. Right now we are at very nascent stage in development of UAVs with off-line-of-sight operations capability. And it is perfectly reflected in the causes of the failure of Nirbhay in successive tests.

For Nirbhay to be a success ADE will have to increase frequency of tests to as much as a MALE UAV would have before certification. However unlike UAV, every time Nirbhay goes into testing there will a total loss of the air frame. So funding would have to increase as well. Right now peanuts are only delivering monkeys. But it would be a grave injustice to DRDO if i don't add that with just 2% of total defense budget DRDO has often delivered more than a monkey, sometimes Stallions.

 

[sayareakd]

Lets connect the dots:

1. Russian test fired in long missile in latest conflect.
2. CBI is investigating (DRDO) signed $208 million deal with Embraer.
3. AWAC project Chief is now DRDO Chief.
4. Now missile is tested despite informed by Rout, who can figure out what proximity fuse is for SAM, that missile is bound to fail. Even scientists said it will fail. Actually failed on the test.

Future events looks like this. (Just speculation)

5. Next i see Russian offer their latest missile to India.
6. All for Indian forces going gaga over new missile.
7. Our mother land is secure.

 

[Abhishek Shrivastava]

Do someone have todays video of test.

 

[piKacHHu]

A LACM is more like an fully autonomous UAV with a warhead. And any country's success in developing such a system depends upon its success in field of UAVs. Right now we are at very nascent stage in development of UAVs with off-line-of-sight operations capability. And it is perfectly reflected in the causes of the failure of Nirbhay in successive tests.

Well there is a basic difference in navigational aspects of a current generation drone like Predator and LACM.
Recent drones use more of satellite navigation whereas LACMs like Tomahawk uses traditional inertial navigation with some pre-fed loitering map. Moreover, control surface of drones are entirely different because they are designed to ensure maximum endurance (more gliding than cruising) and minimum thrust whereas LACM control surface is optimized for longer range at cruising speed of 0.6M with adequate pitch and yaw limits. So in nutshell, these two developments (Drones and LACMs) involve entirely different designs with a few common components like servo control actuators. It must be noted that we are yet to catch up with many intrinsic technologies involved in LACM developments and I agree with your opinion that an aggressive approach is needed to solve it asap even if it involves a couple of more failures.

 

[Tarun Kumar]

Is Nirbhay even needed. Subsonic missile is too useless to carry nuclear weapons. For conventional cum nuclear tactical attacks at 1500km we can build an extended version of Shaurya.

 

[sukhish]

Is Nirbhay even needed. Subsonic missile is too useless to carry nuclear weapons. For conventional cum nuclear tactical attacks at 1500km we can build an extended version of Shaurya.

its useless because the test failed. just repeated testing won't work, the problem has to be diagnosed first instead of just testing and praying.

 

[Immanuel]

Nirbhay is designed to be missile that is highly maneuverable; it's speed throttle able, with an ability to loiter for extended periods (which it demonstrated during its second test which was successful, that test initially had a target to achieve 800km but it was increased with adding additional waypoints and proved a range out to 1010 km) Eventually it should be able to deploy a whopping 24 types of warheads. A world class requirement that once proven successful will b unmatched globally. Patience dears.

 

[Superdefender]

I think Indian scientists are testing something very different (something advanced) in Nirbhaya which is not present in any existing subsonic cruise missile of the world. That's why they are failing. I am not ready to accept that India can successfully test near-zero CP K4, much sophisticated Astra, Interplanetary Mangalyan, BMD and much more to fail miserabely to complete a test of missile flying at mach 0.7. Something is very fishy, hmmm.

 

[sayareakd]

Is Nirbhay even needed. Subsonic missile is too useless to carry nuclear weapons. For conventional cum nuclear tactical attacks at 1500km we can build an extended version of Shaurya.

We wanted cheap missile with 1000-2000kms range ready to be launched in thousands from all platforms. So much so that it was called fearless, because we wanted it to be used against Chinese.

If war with China happen today, only Nukes, A5, some 100+ MKIs and about 300 brahmos are between us. Chinese can do havic up to Delhi at will.

That is why this project is so important to us. We need these in thousands, 5000 would have been great figure to deter dragon.

Next war would be war of missile. But anti nationals are winning it. Nationaliat forces informed about scamed test.

God bless our nation.

 

[Superdefender]

Is Nirbhay even needed. Subsonic missile is too useless to carry nuclear weapons. For conventional cum nuclear tactical attacks at 1500km we can build an extended version of Shaurya.

At first, it does seem that subsonic cruise missiles are useless in today's time. But think, they possess extreme terrain hugging capabilities (much more capable in this aspect than supersonic CMs). In seas if a vessel fires those, they can be detected and gunned down by Destroyers with the help of even CIWS. But in land, they virtually can't be detected by radar in metro cities if they are already flying like hugging lands, passing near by buildings like snake. Laser weapons can intercept them with ease in ocean, but not in land (I am talking about precision high value destruction in cities, not wide destruction in open flatland). So they have their advantages. Don't forget their costs too.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

its useless because the test failed. just repeated testing won't work, the problem has to be diagnosed first instead of just testing and praying.

If I'm not wrong, it was re tested in old configuration, probably to track the fault.

Hope they found it out.