Nirbhay Angst!

The overwhelming interest in the Nirbhay was expected. 🙂 The calls/texts/comments I got expressing everything from outrage to ridicule to befuddlement and dismay were very entertaining. I’d just like to reassure everyone — Like I said in the post, I’m one of the people who hopes the Nirbhay looks nothing like the artistic impressions that I had made. If it does, it’ll be one of the clunkiest, quaintest weapons we’ve ever built. It was only a bit of guesswork based on what we know so far. I truly hope what we dont know about the Nirbhay dictates all its philosophies. And that’s why the post title is question.  We know literally nothing meaningful about how the weapon looks. But hopefully we’ll know more soon. I do know for a fact that the post did its rounds in DRDO labs — now either the folks there laughed, or they scratched their chins and said hmmm. Thanks to a lot of ADE people who chose to keep their comments obscure — I appreciate your inputs 😀

More fundamentally, is the Nirbhay one system or many? Is the Nirbhay primarily a cruise vehicle or a high-speed target system — with a solid-fuelled rocket stage and a turbofan. Information on the latter suggests a system that will be deployed from ships and heavy transport aircraft using an Israeli sensor/seeker. Remember there are two other stand-off cruise weapons that don’t have a name — the Indo-Israeli air-delivered munition (ADM) for nuclear strike and the long range supersonic cruise missile, revealed first here on Livefist. Could the Nirbhay pertain to more than one weapon system? A series of cruise missiles? We don’t know that yet either.

Oh, and the Arjun Mk.2 piece goes up tomorrow.

25 thoughts on “Nirbhay Angst!”

  1. MK-2 Tonight Please If Possible .

    Just hope that the news is more materialistic than the Nirbhay One 😉 ! No Offence Though .

  2. @Shiv Aroor

    I have a few things to say, whatever they are, its floating around in the net.

    1. Nirbhay is almost the same as your pic except the hump engine at the back and without these broader fins.

    2. It will possibly have 4 thin fins and a 'propfan' engine (which will supposedly give it loitering ability)

    3. Its because of these 4 thin fins and propfan engine, some say Nirbhay will actually work as a simulated target drone.

    BTW ever heard of a 'propfan' engine

    Will be glad to get some answers

    Thanks

    Joydeep Ghosh

  3. Indo-Israeli air-delivered munition (ADM)

    I read the article, it says that it is proposed by Rafael but is there any report that India even entertained this suggestion ?? Is this project exist or not ?

    Also whats the progress of Indo-Russian Novator K-100 anti awacs air-launched missile ? Is India even invlved in this project ? Why didn't India joined Russia when they decided to build a whole set of weapons for 5th gen fighter aircrafts ?

    Lastly i have one very important question about AMCA and AURA project. Do we also have a whole new program for weapons that can be carried by the internal weapon bay of these aircrafts ? If not then is DRDO gonna chose the weapons first and then build the internal weapon bay accordingly ?? Because in case of fifth gen fighters you cannot just fit any weapon as you like as they have internal weapon bay.

  4. shiv, please don't tell me that u created a 3 day hype just for a fan art lately there have been no inside info., rumors, braking story in your blog, we have great expectations from u please post some sensational posts.

  5. Thanks Shiv…u always provide useful input of defense program.Want to more about joint indo israeli projects.

  6. what on earth was the point of this post if you have nothing concrete ?
    how about an update on the MMRCA, the kaveri (will there ever be a real indian engine ?)for example.

  7. Obviously the Propfan engines are more suitable for long range subsonic cruise missiles than for aircrafts. I have some hope that they may have developed or procured the suitable multistage swept wing blades.

  8. Shiv yaar, stop emulating Chinese fan boys with fantasy art. If you do want to post art, make sure it shows up in the headline and not in a by-line.

  9. In all serious does anyone here have the faintest idea about aeronautical engineering or are you all just throwing about terms you read on wikipedia. Grow up read a book. Get a qualification then speak up. Need i remind people of Abraham Lincoln's adage.

  10. Dude u really let us down with your article on Nirbhay….i thought u might have got some inside news abt nirbhay by Mr. Shekaran, Director, ASl, Hyderabad whom u recently spoke to, And u posted an article of full bullshit, after making everyone waiting curiously for 3days, just to increase hits on your blog. Your article has made me to put your integrity as a defence reporter below than Parsun sengupta (know all person), rahul bedi, suman etc…You lost all the respect u had…:(

  11. My insider input tells me that…
    1.Nirbhay will be a stealthier one than TomaHawk i.e.will have a pentagonal/hexagonal cross section for the same reason.
    2.Range will be less than tomahawk i.e.around 1000 KM and Turboprop version will be launched from PLATFORMS of all THREE dimensions.
    3.Slim Y shaped air-ducts in the sides so that it can be launched by strike aircrafts.
    4. Two versions i) with a Propfan for loitering capability like Haroop (Tactical warhead). and ii)other one will be a Turboprop version and Terrain Hugging one (This will be Strategic Warhead One).

    5. Super sonic LACMs also has two versions..One with Hypersonic speed and 300 KM Range i.e. BrahMos II. The other one with Supersonic speed using RAM jet and Range about 600 KM.(This will probably fit inside the FGFA's weapon bay).

    Regards,

  12. if M not wrong, nirbhay will hav an air launched derivative and this design simply doesn't goes down well for that purpose and similarly this design cannot have an SLCM version either and no matter what they are, DRDO people cannot make such a mistake to omit these version all together right from scratch, they will design it to have maximum common features in all three versions.. and don't worry shiv, at least you tried and u didn't made any mistake..n u didn't let anyone down///

  13. Arrogance driven by ignorance is the first step towards oblivion… treating your visitors like that is plain stupid—"feel free not to come back!! huh

  14. I like your style shiv,,,,shoot in the dark and hope someone moves the target onto the bullet's path

  15. I simply do not understand why all this mystery being cooked in the name of Nirbhay. From DRDO's hand-outs from time to time it is clear that Nirbhay is a sub-sonic two-stage cruise missile with 700 to 1000 km range,being developed as land, sea and air variants. The land and sea variants probably will have a range of 700 km, while the air variant may be having 1000 km range. The turbo fan engine is from Russia's NPO-Saturn and its is going to be licence produced in HAL's Koraput engine division. Its first flight is probably in August or september this year. So pretty soon we will know what it looks like. By the by why all this controversy about what it is suppose to look? It is the performance that counts. As for performance, I am sure our hard working, competent and totally dedicated DRDO scientists will do another Agni-5. I am congratulating Saraswat and his brilliant team in advance!

  16. I would say this article is very below to standard. i also see your recent some articles just aiming to create hypes to get hits.
    i don't know whether you are finding trouble to get legible news?!

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