Moscow: Russia's Navy has successfully tested a new Bulava sea-launched ballistic missile in the White Sea, a Navy spokesman said Thursday. “A [simulated] warhead reached the testing grounds [on the Kamchatka Peninsula] on schedule,” Igor Drygalo said. The scheduled launch was conducted from the submerged Dmitry Donskoi, a Typhoon-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, in the northern Russia's White Sea, and the missile reached its target at the Kura testing grounds on the Kamchatka Peninsula, about 6,700 kilometers (4,200 miles) east of Moscow.
The national defense program envisions the deployment of the Bulava on nuclear submarines beginning in 2007. The missiles are expected to become the mainstay of the Russian Navy's strategic nuclear forces in decades to come.
However, three missile tests failed late last year, despite previous successful launches.
Anatoly Perminov, head of the Federal Space Agency, said in December of last year that it would take about 12 to 14 test launches to bring it into readiness.
The R-30 Bulava (SS-NX-30) ballistic missile was developed at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology. It can carry up to 10 nuclear warheads and has a range of 8,000 kilometers (about 5,000 miles).
The Bulava ballistic missile, which is adapted from the Topol-M (SS-27) ICBM, will be deployed on Russia's new Borey-class nuclear missile submarines.
The first Borey-class nuclear submarine, Yury Dolgoruky, was launched April 15 at the Sevmash plant in the northern Arkhangelsk Region.
Two other Borey-class nuclear submarines, the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh, are currently under construction at the Sevmash plant, with a fourth submarine on the future production schedule list.
