Russian ICBM |
Russia's new generation of sea-based intercontinental ballistic missiles may be in peril due to recent test failures, raising questions about whether the weapon will be ready for a new class of strategic nuclear submarines designed for the failed missile, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The most recent failure of the Russian Bulava-30 missile designed to be launched from the new Borei-class submarine creates a cloudy horizon for Russia unless there is a dramatic technological breakthrough.
The Borei-class submarines reportedly represent a fourth-generation Russian submarine. They are being built at the Sevmash shipyard at Severodvinsk on Russia's Arctic coast.
In all, the Russians plan to build eight of the submarines. They are to be operational by 2020 to replace older Delta III, Delta IV and Typhoon-class strategic submarines.
The first such submarine of the Borei class is the Yury Dolgoruky, which actually was put under production in 1996. But due to numerous funding problems, it wasn't launched until 2007 and was commissioned in 2008. The submarine was the first to be launched since the end of the Soviet era.
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Two other Borei class submarines, the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh, are under construction with a fourth now in the planning stages.
But in the most recent test, the Bulava missile "self destroyed and exploded in the air" following its launch from a modified Typhoon-class nuclear submarine Dmitri Donskoi beneath the White Sea in northwestern Russia, according to Russian navy spokesman Captain Igor Dygalo.
Over the past two years, the Bulava has experienced repeated test failures, making its deployment uncertain. Of 11 test launches, only one has been successful. The other 10 exploded in mid-flight or the test warheads failed to accurately hit targets located at the Kura test ground in Kamchatka.
While capabilities vary, the Bulava is said to be designed for a maximum range of between 5,000 miles to 6,200 miles, or 8,047 kilometers to 9,656 kilometers, and is to be MIRV'd, or capable of carrying from six to10 individually targetable reentry vehicles, each with a nuclear warhead.
The missile is designed to penetrate any missile defense system. It underscores a Russian "salvo strategy" of launching a series of warheads at once to overcome any existing anti-missile defense system.
Each Borei-class submarine is to carry up to 16 Bulava missiles each with 10 MIRV'd warheads.
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