HYDERABAD: Nirbhay, India's first subsonic cruise missile, will be test-fired by the end of February, said V K Saraswat, director general of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and scientific advisor to defence minister A K Antony. Saraswat was speaking to the media during a seminar on 'Nurturing, Managing and Institutionalising Innovation' organised by the Defence Research and Develoment Laboratory (DRDL) here on Friday.
While 2012 was an eventful year for the defence organisation with almost a dozen successful launches of various kinds of missiles, this year also promises to be big with many more plans underway. "Nirbhay will be a medium-range cruise missile with advantages like the ability of not being detected and high accuracy. It is also a cheaper option," Saraswat said.
Asked if there were any hitches in test-firing the missile as it was expected to have taken place sometime back, Saraswat said some processes had been developed and there were no hitches.
This year, a major plan of the DRDO is 'canisterisation' of Agni IV and Agni V, which will enable firing of the missile from any platform. Another plan was to integrate Astra-III with Sukhoi. He said four Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) would be produced this year and in 2014, the necessary operational clearances would be sought.
The DRDO has also carried out 50 of the 56 modifications sought for the Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun Mark-II variant by the user. The rest of the modifications will be carried out in the next few months. Saraswat said the Long Range Cruise Missile (LRCM) will have all futuristic features.
Saraswat informed that they had got permissions for the missile testing range proposed at Machilipatnam. "It is a barren piece of land and we will turn it into a green area. There will be no environmental issues," he said. Talking about the civilian applications of defence technology, he said that the bio-digesters (toilets) were much in demand and there was a proposal with the tourism ministry on using them in buses.
Another important application would be the kit for detection of dengue. The kits developed by DRDO will take just two hours to confirm a dengue case while the kits available elsewhere take 24 hours. Saraswat said that the technology has already been transferred to manufacturers of the anti-mosquito 'attracticide', which is available in the market.
Nirbhay to be test-fired in February
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Nirbhay to be test-fired in February
