India’s Home-Grown Subsonic Nirbhay Missile Test Postponed to Friday

India’s Defense Research Development Organization will now test the indigenous sub-sonic cruise missile Nirbhay for the third time on October 16 after the Prime Minister’s Office put the testing on hold for Thursday.

The PMO has also put a couple of other missile tests on hold ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign tour.

The Prime Minister is slated to inaugurate an exhibition at DRDO headquarters in New Delhi and also the Nirbhay trial on Friday.

The scheduled tests of nuclear ballistic missile Agni-IV and AAD interceptor missile have also been deferred apprehending their impact on Modi’s recent foreign tour, The New Indian Express news daily reported Wednesday.

Nirbhay is compared to US’ Tomahawk missile and will be tested for the third time from the launching complex-III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur.

“How was Nirbhay given a ‘go-ahead’ when the PMO and National Security Advisor (NSA) instructed them not to carry out other tests (Agni-iV and AAD). For Nirbhay, the PMO has not been taken into confidence. The DRDO chief and project director of the missile usually takes decision about the tests,” an unnamed DRDO scientist was quoted as saying by the news daily.

The missile will be launched after the range readiness and missile integration are properly checked, Director General (Aeronautics) Tamilmani said.