Nirbhay Subsonic Cruise Missile

SOURCE:
http://www.defencenews.in/article.aspx?id=39351



REF TO ;

http://bcvasundhra.blogspot.in/2016/12/nirbhay-subsonic-cruise-missile-utter.html



After MTCR Membership, India to once again test Nirbhay Cruise Missile in Dec
                                  By
                   SPUTNIK  News   


Tuesday, November 22, 2016

What is a Cruise Missile : For details CLICK url  to read

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_missile 

Weapons: Why is India keen on developing the subsonic cruise missile Nirbhaya, when it already has the supersonic cruise missile Brahmos?

What can a subsonic cruise missile do that a supersonic cruise missile cannot?

The answer is the range of the missile which differs significantly from subsonic to Supersonic. As you may heard about tomahawk cruise missile, it’s a subsonic missile.

Let’s just compare Tomahawk and BrahMos missiles.

Range:

• Tomahawk-: 1300KM - 2500KM
• BrahMos-: 300 KM- 500 KM (only 20% of Tomahawk’s max range)

Weight:

• Tomahawk-: 1600 Kg
• Brahmos-: 3000Kg(Just double of Tomahawk)

From above comparison we can say that just to achieve the supersonic speed brahmos need to burn double fuel than the Tomahawk but it could only reach the 20% of max range of tomahawk.

That’s why India is keen to develop a subsonic missile.

for further reference you might go through these links

Tomahawk (missile)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk__(missile

A sub sonic missile travels vastly slower than a supersonic missile. Therefore it'd take much longer to reach a target. And the efficient engine it has, compared to the supersonic missile would allow it to 'loiter' over a target area. In other words, once the missile is overhead and is put on a "loiter" pattern, the government can make a decision as to whether a strike still needs to be carried out or not. If they choose not to, the missile can be safely self destructed well above the target. Also, as explained  above  you do not need as much fuel and therefore as much weight to strike the intended target. This means that a sub-sonic missile can either travel much farther than a supersonic one or carry more ordnance.

(An image of the famous Tomahawk cruise missile. It is a long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile named after the Native American word for 'axe.' Introduced by McDonnell Douglas in the 1970s, it was initially designed as a medium to long-range, low-altitude missile that could be launched from a surface platform. It has been improved several times, and due to corporate divestitures and acquisitions, is now made by Raytheon.)

(an image of the world's only in-production supersonic cruise missile, Brahmos. It is a short range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land.

It is a joint venture between the Russian Federation's NPO Mashinostroeyenia and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) who have together formed BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.)

In cases where speed is not of essence, and to reach a target farther away or more heavily "hardened," (such as command and control buildings, Headquarters etc.,) a sub-sonic missile is necessary. In a hypothetical situation where we need to strike a terrorist camp, a sub-sonic missile can loiter over the intended target area and wait until it is appropriate to strike, inorder to minimise collateral damage and civilian casualties.

Also, by virtue of their slower speed, the sub-sonic missiles can fly closer to the ground using the "terrain hugging" (or 'nap of the earth') tactic and more efficiently evade enemy radar detection (because of the earth's curvature, radar waves after a certain distance will be unable to detect low flying aircrafts or missiles). While the advantage of a supersonic missile is its speed, which means reduced reaction time for the enemy, the advantage for the sub-sonic missile is greater range/payload and greatly reduced odds of detection.

The enemy cannot run from a supersonic missile, and similarly he would not realise what just hit him if its a sub-sonic missile

                                                

Has India’s recent membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) made a difference in the indigenously designed and developed long range sub-sonic cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’?


India has to depend on indigenous technology so far because it was not a member of MTCR. This led to two failures and one partial success. The missile has recently undergone changes and Indian scientists are geared for a fourth test in December this year.

“A low-flight trial (Of Nirbhaya) will be held next month. This will be followed by two more flights. Work on the air variant is on,” said Aeronautical Development Establishment Director M V K V Prasad.

India’s Defense Ministry had claimed success in some operations that the missile had performed during its last test lasting over 11 minutes.

“DRDO needs to get over the critical challenges experienced in stability of the missile in flight over long range which has led to abortion of the mission twice so far,” defense analyst Brigadier Rahul Bhonsle (retired) said.

India had sanctioned the project in 2010 with plans to complete it after three years. Later on, Government had extended the date of completion and adds extra cost to the project.

Of late, it was speculated that plans to extend the range of Indo-Russian BrahMos missile may sink the Nirbhay project.

“Technically speaking a BrahMos with extended range and Nirbhay are two separate projects by different agencies. Thus the move to extend the range of BrahMos should not impact the development of the Nirbhay. What is to be decided is do we want two sets of cruise missiles – one with a range of 600 and another 1,000 kms? Is there an operational requirement of the two categories of missiles for the armed forces and is there enough money to develop both?” asked Bhonsle.

However, the Governments wants to provide full backing to a completely indigenous project as it will give the defense planners greater autonomy in production and deployment.