Missiles on target

With precision, the intercontinental missiles hit their target at the Kura shooting range in Kamchatka, the Russian Armed Forces inform on their website.

It was the first double-launch of Bulava missiles from the ”Vladimir Monomakh”, Russia’s third vessel of the Borey-class strategic subs. The test launch comes as the Russian Navy gets ready for the official takeover of the submarine.

The vessel is expected to be formally taken into active duty by Navy this year.

Captain Viktor Sidorenko and his crew displayed a high level of professionalism and marine skills in their exection of the launch training, the Russian military says. Video footage from the Russian Navy shows the two lightening missiles taking off from the submarine’s submerged position and heading east towards their target

As previously reported, Russia has been conducting tests with the Bulava missile since 2004. Until 2009, there were 6 failures in 13 flight tests and one failure during ground test, blamed mostly on substandard components. After a failure in December 2009, further tests were put on hold and a probe was conducted to find out the reasons for the failures. Testing was resumed one year later, and of the ten tests that have been conducted since then, only one has failed. 

Until 2011, test launches were conducted by “Dmitry Donskoy” – a Typhoon submarine from 1980 that has been reconstructed to fire Bulava missiles. The three finished Borey-class submarines has launched eight missiles all together from the Barents Sea and the White Sea – one of them failed while the other seven hit their target on Kamchatka or in the Pacific Ocean.

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