DRDO carries maiden test of land attack long range cruise missile

Complementing DRDO on the successful launch, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said this paves the way for future indigenous cruise missile development programmes

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Tuesday (November 12, 2024) conducted the maiden flight-test of a Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile (LRLACM), with a range of 1,000 km, from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha from a mobile articulated launcher. This is a new variant of the Nirbhay LRLACM with improved features, officials confirmed.

The Defence Acquisition Council had approved procurement of the LRLACM of over 1,000 km range in July 2020.

During the test, all sub-systems performed as per expectation and met the primary mission objectives. The missile performance was monitored by several range sensors like Radar, Electro Optical Tracking System and telemetry deployed by ITR at different locations to ensure complete coverage of the flight path.

“The missile followed the desired path using way point navigation and demonstrated its capability to perform various manoeuvres while flying at various altitudes and speeds. The missile is also equipped with advanced avionics and software to ensure better and reliable performance,” DRDO said in a statement.

The missile has been developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment, Bengaluru along with contribution from other DRDO laboratories and Indian industries. Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad and Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru are the two Development-cum-Production-Partners for LRLACM and they are engaged in the missile development and integration, DRDO said.

“LRLACM is a Defence Acquisition Council-approved, Acceptance of Necessity-sanctioned, Mission Mode Project. It is configured to launch from ground using mobile articulated launcher and also from frontline ships using universal vertical launch module system,” DRDO stated.

Complementing DRDO on the successful launch, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said this paves the way for future indigenous cruise missile development programmes.

The original Nirbhay, with a range of 1,000 km and meant to fly very low to the ground to avoid detection by enemy radar called terrain hugging capability, was tested multiple times which also saw couple of failures.

Once inducted, the LRLACM, similar to U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile, will give Indian armed forces a long range standoff capability to strike targets on land.

Published - November 13, 2024 12:40 am IST