India’s Nirbhay Subsonic Cruise Missile’s Fifth Launch Deferred Due To Tech Snag

The fifth test of India’s home-grown subsonic cruise missile, Nirbhay has been deferred due to a technical snag.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) postponed the test which was planned to be conducted on Wednesday.

‘’A technical snag surfaced during checking of missile sub-systems which led to the postponement. As already three tests have been failed, we cannot afford to take any risk this time. Scientists are working to fix it,’’ The Express quoted an unnamed defence official associated with the mission as saying.

“The test is expected to take place in a month once the fault is rectified,” the sources said.

Of the four missile tests, only one test has been successful.

The last test was carried out in December 2016. The test was aborted midway as the missile changed course. Due to fear that the missile could hit land, it was destroyed within minutes of take-off.

The first test flight, conducted on March 12, 2013, failed as the missile fell after only 20 minutes of flight.

The second test on October 17, 2014, was successful as the missile met all desired parameters.

During the third test on October 16, 2015, the missile nose-dived into the Bay of Bengal after covering only 128 km.

Delay in the process of wing deployment led to third failure of the subsonic cruise missile. Nirbhay was pointing towards a slight ‘pause’ during the wing deploying process, resulting in the missile developing a very high roll-rate, which led to the Inertial Navigation System (INS) losing its frame of reference.