Nirbhay missile program has been successful, and it was a technological demonstrator to prove the indigenous cruise missile technology. The development of Nirbhay with Russian NPO Saturn 36MT engine is complete.
To take the Nirbhay missile program to next stage ITCM was started aimed to achieve 100% indigenization.
The Indigenous Technology Cruise Missile (ITCM) is the program to develop Nirbhay cruise missile with indigenous Small Turbo Fan Engine (STFE) engine of 400 kg-force thrust class.
During Defense expo-2022, the Joint Director of ITCM project had informed that 1 more test is planned for the Nirbhay missile this month-end. The missile will be powered by the GTRE’s STFE engine.
Till now, 8 flight trials of Nirbhay has been conducted. The ITCM program is planned to be concluded by July 2023. ITCM is going to be technology demonstrator with 100% indigenous content.
Post the completion of ITCM, two more spin-off of this program is planned. First one is Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile (LRLACM) for Indian Army & Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) for Indian Airforce.
ITCM ‘failed’ on Friday(28th October, 2022)
As per the latest report from the NewIndianExpress, A fresh test of India’s indigenous technology cruise missile (ITCM) ‘failed’ on Friday after its engine reportedly developed snags. The system, a technology demonstrator, was tested with indigenously developed small turbo fan engine (STFE) ‘Manik’ and an upgraded radio frequency seeker from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) off Odisha coast.
The engine developed technical glitches after the initial booster phase, and the missile system plunged into the sea within 30 seconds of the launch. The mission had assumed significance as the missile with indigenous STFE developed by Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) would pave the way for development of a long-range land attack cruise missile that the country has been expecting since long.
The engine was supposed to start after the initial take-off from the specially designed mobile launcher. But it did not start, possibly owing to a snag. Since the engine did not start it would be difficult to say how it developed snags and whether any external factor was responsible for it. Issues, if any, with the design of the system will also be looked into by DRDO.
ITCM Trial: 2 failures and 1 partial success
This was the second failure of the system in the last two years. Of the three tests of the ITCM conducted since 2020, two have failed and one achieved ‘partial success’.
The 1st failed test of ITCM was conducted in October 2020 which was aborted in just 8 minutes. The missile deviated from the pre-coordinated flight path prompting the mission team to kill the missile in mid-air to prevent damages to human habitation.
DRDO had conducted 2nd test on August 11, 2021. The sub-sonic cruise missile was tested for 100 km in flight and 15 minutes in time. The firing was a partial success, and the indigenous engine was successfully tested but the delivery platform came down due to inexplicable reasons – may be a snag in the controller, but the engine worked well.
Nirbhay/ITCM: Technical specifications
Nirbhay is India’s first subsonic cruise missile having cruise speed of 0.7 Mach. The missile can be launched from multiple platforms. It will follow low flight path with cruise altitude of 100m and capable of carrying conventional and strategic warheads. It can carry PCB & BCF warhead.
The missile has a range of 1000km with overall weight of 1450 kg. The missile has overall length of 7.6m and diameter of 520mm. The missile uses Inertial Navigation system augmented with GPS. For terminal homing it can use either RF/EO/IR seeker.
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