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Moscow tests new sea-based missile

Russia successfully tested a new sea-based ballistic missile after several previous failures, a naval spokesman said, in the nation's second major test of new missile technologies in a month.

Captain Igor Dygalo said that the Bulava missile hit its target on the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka, about 6,700km east of Moscow, after being launched on Thursday from the submarine Dmitry Donskoi in northern Russia's White Sea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed the Bulava as a key component of the nation's nuclear forces for years to come and boasted about its ability to penetrate any prospective missile defenses.

However, three earlier tests of the Bulava in recent years ended in failure, raising doubts about the missile's future.

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst, said a successful launch would be good for the future of Russia's missile forces, but he said he had doubts, given the missile's past track record and the military's penchant for secrecy.

A Bulava test failure last December was not publicly announced by the military, leaking out only in newspaper reports.

Russian media speculated that military was trying to not embarrass Sergei Ivanov, the former defense minister who is now a first deputy prime minister and is widely considered a leading candidate to succeed Putin in next year's presidential election.

design

According to published Russian reports, the Bulava is designed to have a range of 10,000km and to carry six individually targeted nuclear warheads. It is expected to equip three new Borei-class nuclear submarines that are under construction.

The missile is being developed by the Moscow-based Thermal Technology Institute, which designed the ground-based Topol-M missile and had no previous experience in building submarine-based missiles.

Thursday's test comes amid an aggressive Russian effort to upgrade its missile forces and technologies after years of underfunding and a lack of testing.

preliminary test

On May 29, the Strategic Rocket Forces reported that it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads. A "preliminary" test was also carried out of a tactical cruise missile that Ivanov said could fly farther than existing, similar weapons.

US plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic have also sparked increasingly belligerent comments from Putin and other top military and government officials in Moscow. Both nations are former Warsaw Pact members who are now a part of NATO.
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