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  • Bulava Suspended?

    This is the third launch failure in a row for the new Russian Sub launched ICBM. The test in September was initially claimed to be a success, but Russia later admitted it crashed into the sea a few miles away from the launch point.

    The Bulava was intended to be the counterpart to the US Trident missile.
    Oct. 26,

    "Bulava" Rocket Dunked Again

    Test Launch of Newest Sea-Based Nuclear Missile Fails, Missile Self-Destructs over White Sea

    Yesterday evening Russia launched its newest R-30 ballistic missile, the "Bulava-M," from the TK-208 strategic atomic submarine "Dmitry Donskoy" cruising under the surface of the White Sea. Like the previous launch of the Bulava rocket in September, the launch yesterday also ended with the missile failing to reach its intended target at the Kura test site on the Kamchatka peninsula. As a result the missile test program, which is supposed to become the basis of Russian sea-based nuclear power within the next ten years, has been de facto suspended.

    The developer of the sea-based Bulava-M, the Moscow Institute of Thermodynamics, had hoped to rehabilitate its brainchild with yesterday's launch. The previous launch, on September 7, ended in failure when the missile fell into the White Sea a minute after it was launched from the submarine "Dmitry Donskoy." A commission created after the incident found that a malfunction had occurred in the missile's guidance system during its flight.

    The missile launched yesterday from onboard the same submarine at 17:05 Moscow time flew for about 200 seconds before veering off course, which triggered the missile's guidance system to issue the command to automatically self-destruct. The pieces of the Bulava fell into the water. It was reported two hours later that the launch was unsuccessful, but even after that both the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Space Agency (which oversees the Moscow Institute of Thermodynamics) refused to officially comment on the failure of the test. A navy source told Kommersant, "we consider the Bulava test to have been a success, since the launch did not harm the crew of the submarine or damage the submarine itself, which was specially outfitted for the test."

    In the opinion of a Kommersant source within the military-industrial commission, the two accidents this year involving Bulava-M missiles, as well as the incident that took place in September 2005 during the first test of the missile (that time the rocket's head exploded before it reached the Kura test site), may lead to a review of the test program. The program is supposed to be completed by 2007, at which time the navy is expected to add the Bulava missile to its arsenal. Meanwhile, the Votkinsky factory needs to finish the serial production of the new rockets to make room for the equipping of three underwater atomic rocket launchers from the 955 "Borei" project ("Yury Dolgoruky," Alexander Nevsky," and "Vladimir Monomakh") that are currently being built at the Sevmash factory. Now, however, the program faces the threat of cancellation.

    A Kommersant source in the White House called for the events to not be made into a tragedy. In his words, accidents during tests of sea-based missiles happen in the US as well. However, out of 23 test launches of Trident I missiles, only three were unsuccessful. The Trident II rocket, which is currently in the arsenal of the American nuclear submarine fleet, failed only once in 49 tests.

    http://www.kommersant.com/p716543/r_...ussia_failure/
    "We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
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