The long range , low altitude missile, test fired from Chandipur Integrated Test Range ( ITR) in Balasore district of Odisha had to be aborted mid-flight after it was found to have deviated from its original path.
At a time when the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been under scanner for slow progress in critical defence programmes, India's indigenous surface-to-surface sub-sonic cruise missile, Nirbhay, deviated from path on Friday, and critically for the third consecutive time could not complete its tests.
The long range , low altitude missile, test fired from Chandipur Integrated Test Range ( ITR) in Balasore district of Odisha had to be aborted mid-flight after it was found to have deviated from its original path.
The missile, though have a range of 750-1000 kilometres, it was aborted after covering 128 kilometers only due to technical glitches.
Two earlier test flights of Nirbhay, one in March 2013 and another in October, 2014 too had failed within minutes of the missile taking off.
Friday morning, the missile's launch was disrupted several times due to snags and finally could be launched at 11.38 AM. However, after it failed to stick to its path, was aborted into the Bay of Bengal 20 minutes into its flight.
A Sukhoi 30 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force had taken off from Kalaikunda air base near Kharagpur in West Bengal to track the missile's movement.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said that all initial critical operations- booster ignition, booster separation, wing deployment and engine start were successfully executed and Nirbhay reached the desired altitude. During 700 seconds of flight all the subsystems of the cruise missile functioned satisfactorily and met all the desired functions. "The mission was aborted after 700 seconds of flight".
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 "Indigenous Nirbhay Missile fails test for the third time")
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