Bulava SLBM Thread:

A test warhead from a Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile successfully hit its target on the Kura test range in Russia's Far East Kamchatka region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.

The missile was fired from underwater from the Dmitry Donskoy nuclear-powered submarine in the White Sea at 5:10 Moscow time (1:10 GMT).

MOSCOW, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Russia successfully carried out a new test of an intercontinental missile on Friday that Moscow hopes to make the cornerstone of its nuclear missile programme.
The military said the 12-metre long Bulava, or Mace, fired from a submarine near Russia's border with Finland, successfully hit its target some 6,000 km (3,370 miles) away in the peninsula of Kamchatka in Russia's far east.
"Today at 5:10 a.m. (the missile) was launched from the submarine Dmitry Donskoi," said Igor Konoshenkov, press officer of the Defence Ministry.
"The launch, from an underwater location, was carried out normally and everything was up to standard," he told Reuters by telephone.
Military analysts saw Friday's test of the Bulava, which had failed seven of 13 previous trials, as a crucial hurdle in proving the reliability of the missile as a mainstay of the Russian army.
Further failures of the missile were expected to prompt fundamental changes to the costly project.
The Bulava missiles, which weigh 36.8 tonnes and can travel a distance of 8,000 km, are designed to be fitted on the Russian Borei class of submarines.
One missile can hold 6-10 nuclear warheads, which would deliver a impact of up to 100 times the atomic blast that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told RIA news agency six more successful tests of the rocket were needed before it would be ready for use in the navy. .....

Vladimir79 wrote:I believe the problem is solved. Two successful launches by only watching the manufacturing process indicates it was indeed poor quality control. This missile is based on Topol so it should have worked period.

Vladimir79 wrote:It is a navalised version of Topol-M.

The Bulava (SS-NX-30) is the submarine-launched version of Russia’s most advanced missile, the Topol-M (SS-27) solid fuel ICBM. The SS-NX-30 is a derivative of the SS-27, except for a slight decrease in range due to conversion of the design for submarine launch. The SS-27 is 21.9 meters long, far too large to fit in a typical submarine.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/3m14.htm

Russia’s new Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile conducted another, 14th, successful trial on October 29, reported the Russian Defense Ministry. Similar to the previous successful trial on October 7, this time the missile was again fired from a submersed position by the Typhoon class Dmitry Donskoy submarine in the White Sea to the test range Kura on the Kamchatka peninsula.

Now Bulava has seven successful launches of a total 14 trials. This year the Russian military plans to have one more launch from the new Borei class Yuri Dolgoruky sub that is designed to be the in-service carrier of these missiles. The Defense Ministry earlier explained that three launches in a row with the missiles assembled at one time are needed to eliminate the manufacturing defects which caused the previous test failures.

According to the first deputy defense minister Vladimir Popovkin, the missile will be tested until the reliability ratio of 0.98-0.99 is reached. The Russian first vice premier Sergey Ivanov was cited by RIA Novosti, saying that apart from the remaining launch in 2010, five more test firings are planned for the next year. “It’s evident that there is no engineering mistake”, he hurried to say, adding that the reason for previous failures was manufacturing defects.

Vladimir79 wrote:It means MACE