Failed test delays Russian ICBM introduction
A test launch of Russia's new Bulava submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missile has failed, which will further delay this effort to revamp Moscow's aging nuclear deterrent.
A source in the military industrial complex said that Bulava, launched from the Dmitry Donskoi submarine earlier that day, deviated from its course during the flight. It was ordered to self-destruct and did so without causing casualties or damage, the official said.
Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said December 23 that the launch was carried out in the White Sea but he would not speak about its results, saying only that they are being studied. The launch was the Bulava's tenth, and the fifth that failed. The missile had a successful test in November.
If it had been successful, the Russian navy had planned to introduce the missile into service in 2009.
Capable of carrying up to 10 individually targeted warheads up to 8,000 kilometers, Bulava is expected to compensate for the decommissioning of the rapidly aging Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in order to maintain the strategic parity with the United States.
Bulava tests will be continued in 2009, with three or four launches to be carried out, an unidentified military official told Interfax December 23.
Earlier this year, the head of the Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, said that it will take between 12 and 14 launches to complete the tests of the new naval missile.
Bulava was designed to be placed aboard the new nuclear submarines Yuri Dolgoruky, Alexander Nevsky and Vladimir Monomakh, each of which can carry up to twelve missiles.
Yuri Dolgoruky was floated out this fall and is being tested in the sea. Two other submarines are being constructed at the Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk on the White Sea in the Russian north.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, during his 2000-08 presidency, repeatedly stressed that development of the nation's nuclear forces, including the Bulava, is the major defense against foreign states that aspire to take Russia's natural riches under their control.
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