Article Posted on : - Mar 12, 2013

Nirbhay, India's long-range subsonic cruise missile being launched from Chandipur, Odisha, on Tuesday. Photo: DRDO.

BALASORE, ODISHA (PTI): For the first time, India on Tuesday test-fired its indigenously developed medium range subsonic cruise missile 'Nirbhay' from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur.

"The missile blasted off from a mobile launcher positioned in the launch pad 3 of the ITR at about 11:54 AM," defence sources said.

The maiden launch developmental trial of the sophisticated missile was carried out at Chandipur, about 15 km from here, in the presence of top defence scientists and senior officials.

The DRDO said the missile "successfully" met the basic mission objectives and performed some of the manouveres satisfactorily before being terminated mid way.

"Nirbhay was successfully launched from launch complex, Chandipur, Odisha, meeting the basic mission objectives successfully."

"After travelling approximately mid-way, deviations were observed from its intended course. Further, flight was terminated to ensure coastal safety," DRDO spokesman Ravi Gupta said in a release.

The surface-to-surface missile has the capability of being launched from land, sea and air, they said, adding Nirbhay has good loitering capability, good control and guidance, high degree of accuracy in terms of impact and very good stealth features.

Nirbhay was developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory based in Bangalore.

India has the technology of supersonic missile like BRAHMOS which is jointly developed by India and Russia.

BRAHMOS has the striking range of 290 km.