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Launch of Very Expensive Missile a Dud
// Rushed trial leads to accident
Trials of the latest Bulava missiles ended in failure yesterday. Because of attempts to save time and money on the tests, one of the most ambition projects to increase Russia's nuclear might may be scrapped indefinitely. News of the failure was received half an hour after the launch of a new Bulava missile from the submarine Dmitry Donskoi , and the military is promising to set up a special commission to investigate the causes of the misfortune.
The Bulava has been prone to mishap from the beginning. The Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering was commissioned to develop the rocket in 1997. It had previously only worked on land missiles. Institute head Yury Solomonov convinced the military that the institute could design a single missile for land and sea use, for a tempting savings of money. The new weapon was to go into Project 955 submarines under construction, that is, the Yury Dolgoruky, Alexander Nevsky and Vladimir Monomakh.
The solid-fuel Bulava R-30 has a range of 10,000 km. and launch weight of 36.8 metric tons. It can be equipped with six (some say ten) warheads. It has a target accuracy of 350 m. The missile is similar to the U.S. Trident I, which was developed in 1979. Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov ad Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin often referred to the Bulava as the “superweapon of the 21st century.” The project was plagued with problems, however. It had to be redesigned once, and still turned out not to unified with Topol M land missiles. Its designers had no experience with sea missiles, and the project suffered delays. The decision was made to forego land testing and begin immediately from a submarine. Its battle readiness was moved from 2006 to 2007 then to 2008.
Yesterday's accident will most likely slow the implementation of the project down. The missiles were described by Vladimir Masorin, main commander of the Russian Navy, as “very expensive,” but they are unlikely to try to save any more money on its testing. If the new Project 955 submarines are finished on time, that is, before the new Bulava is ready, the Russian Navy will have supermodern missile-carrying submarines with no missiles.
Mikhail Alexeev
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 08, 2006
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