Nirbhay is powered by a solid rocket booster for take off which is developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL). Upon reaching the required velocity and height, a Turbofan engine in the missile takes over for further propulsion. The missile is guided by an inertial navigation system developed by Research Center Imarat (RCI) and a radio altimeter for the height determination. The missile has a Ring Laser Gyroscope (RLG) based guidance, control and navigation system. It also has a MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) along with the GPS system. The missile has a length of 6 metres, width of 0.52 metres, a wing span of 2.7 metres and weighs about 1500kg. It has a range of about 1000 km and is capable of delivering 24 different types of warheads depending on mission requirements between 200-300kg.

The missile is claimed to have a loitering capability, i.e., it can go round a target and perform several manoeuvres and then re-engage it. It is also able to pick out a target and attack it among multiple targets. With two side wings, the missile is capable of flying at different altitudes ranging from 100 m to 4 km above the ground and can also fly at low altitudes (like low tree level) to avoid detection by enemy radar. It will eventually supplement the role played by Brahmos missile for the Indian Armed Forced by delivering warheads farther than the 450 km range of Brahmos.

The missile was developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bengaluru. ADE is a lab under DRDO. After the design was finalized, the technology required for the missile was developed. It was integrated by R&D Engineers, Pune, a specialized arm of DRDO. Indian private sector giant Tata has built the vehicle that is the carrier/launcher for the Nirbhay system and is based on an "high mobility, all-terrain and all-wheel drive Tata LPTA 5252-12 X12 vehicle", developed in partnership with DRDO.

The first test flight of the missile was planned in October 2012,^[21][22] but the launch was postponed to December owing to the changes being made to the launcher. V.K. Saraswat, Director General & Scientific Adviser of DRDO, later said that the missile would be tested in February 2013. He said the delay was due to development of some processes. DRDO expected the missile to be ready for induction within 12 to 18 months after the February test.^[17][19][23] There were unconfirmed media reports that the missile would be scrapped due to multiple test failures but it was then reported that the project has been given an 18-month extension, till June 2018, to fix all outstanding issues.^[24][25][26]

First Trial

The surface version of Nirbhay missile was test fired for the first time on 12 March 2013 from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Balasore district of Odisha. The missile in its maiden flight was supposed to hit a static target situated 1000 km away in the Bay of Bengal. Missile took off from the launch pad successfully and reached the second stage of propulsion, travelling 15 minutes through its envisaged path at a speed of 0.7 mach. After that it veered away from its trajectory forcing the command centre to detach the engine from the missile mid way into the flight. This was done to avoid the risk of the missile hitting the coastal areas. The missile was purposely destroyed in mid-flight.^[27]

The test was a partial success as the missile took off, reached the second stage of propulsion, and travelled 30% of its range and completed most of the mission objectives, before deviating from its path. DRDO has detected the problem which was a faulty inertial navigation system and corrected the same in subsequent tests.

Second Trial

A second launch of the Nirbhay missile was scheduled for February–May 2014^[28] but it was further delayed until October 2014. Slight delay in October was also due to cyclone Hudhud. On 17 October 2014, the surface version of the missile was tested once again from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Balasore district of Odisha, and this time the test was successful. The missile test met all the parameters & completed all 15 way-points. The missile travelled for more than 1000 km that lasted for a duration of over 1 hour and 10 minutes. The missile was tracked with the help of ground-based radars and its health parameters were monitored by telemetry stations from DRDO's ITR and LRDE (Electronics & Radar Development Establishment).^[29] Indian Air force fighter jet Jaguar chased the missile during its flight to capture the video of the flight.

Third trial

The third test of the missile took place on 16 October 2015.^[30] The missile was to be tested for its low flying capability. The missile in flight was supposed to be brought down from 4800 meters to 20 meters gradually and in stages. Su-30 MKI aircraft videotaped the flight.^[31] A press release by the Ministry of Defence stated the missile was launched at 11:38 IST and all initial critical operations such as Booster ignition, Booster separation, Wing deployment and engine start were successfully executed and Nirbhay reached the desired Cruise Altitude.^[32] Although the take off was successful after repeated disruptions of countdown, the missile crashed into the Bay of Bengal 11 minutes into its flight after covering only 128 km of its 1000 km range.^[33]

Fourth Trial

The fourth test of the missile took place on 21 December 2016 from Launch Complex-III of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Balasore in Odisha around 11:56 IST.^[34][35] There has been no official word on the test outcome, however according to news reports this test was not successful. The booster engine in the first stage started working and lifted the missile off from its launcher. But the missile started veering dangerously towards one side in two minutes after lift-off and veered outside its safety corridor. Due to this, the test was aborted and the missile was remotely destroyed. A potential reason for the failure was described as a hardware problem with one of the missile's component.^[36][37][38]

Fifth Trial

The fifth test of the missile took place on 7 November 2017 from Launch Complex-III of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Balasore in Odisha around 11:20 IST. The flight test was a success and met all mission objectives. During the test, the missile travelled a distance of 647 km over a 50 min duration was tracked by ground based radars and telemetry stations.^{[10][39][14][40]}. This trial of the missile used a turbojet engine instead of a turbofan engine^[41][42]

GTRE is developing a new 4.25kN Thrust Turbofan engine called Manik Engine to power Nirbhay Cruise missile and future UAV, Long range AshM cruise missile systems. GTRE is working fast to add test capabilities and infrastructure to test the Manik engine.

• Kh-55 - Russia
• 3M14 -Russia
• Tomahawk (missile) - United States
• Hyunmoo-3 - South Korea
• CJ-10 - China
• HN-1/2/3 - China
• Babur (cruise missile) - Pakistan
• MdCN - UK, France, Italy
• List of missiles by country
• India and weapons of mass destruction