Russian hopes to put Bulava ICBM in service next year
Moscow - Russia hopes to to deliver its new strategic missile system Bulava to the armed forces next year, the defence ministry was quoted as saying on Friday.
The 37-ton-nuclear missile, which has a range of 8,000 kilometres, has undergone two successful tests, a spokesman for the ministry told the news agency Interfax.
The latest was on Friday when a Bulava was launched from a Russian submarine the White Sea and hit its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula, 6,000 kilometres away, the spokesman said.
‘The series of failures is now over,’ the spokesman said, referring to seven earlier tests which backfired and prompted President Dmitri Medvedev to sack the head of the missile defence wing carrying out the programme.
Some experts believe the submarine-based system, an upgrade of the successful SS-27 or Topol, still needs some technical modifications.