'Nirbhay' sub-sonic cruise missile destroyed in flight by India

India's first indigenously developed long range cruise missile 'Nirbhay' was aborted midway today after it deviated from its intended flight path and fell on land.

The missile, which failed to hit the intended target in the sea, was terminated over the Bay of Bengal after it was airborne for about 25 minutes but crashed on land at some distance from a village near Kendrapara in Odisha, DRDO spokesman Ravi Gupta said. It is unusual for aborted missiles to fall on land.

There was no loss of life or property, Gupta said, as TV footage showed wreckage of the missile launched from here.

The DRDO while making the announcement, however, said the sub-sonic missile 'Nirbhay' (fearless) with a strike range of around 1,000 km was "successfully" launched and met the basic mission objectives and performed some of the manouveres satisfactorily.

"Nirbhay was successfully launched today at 1150 hrs 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 statement.

The missile blasted off from a mobile launcher positioned in the launch pad¿3 of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, about 15 km from here.

The surface-to-surface sub-sonic cruise 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 is

stated to have a strike-range of around 1,000 km.

India has the technology of super-sonic missile like BrahMos which is jointly developed by India and Russia.

BrahMos has a strike range of 290 km.

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