New submarine getting ready for missile launch
Russia’s newest strategic submarine ”Yury Dolgoruky” has sailed out to the White Sea to prepare for its first-ever test launch of the new Bulava missile, a Russian news agency reports.
The submarine is now undergoing the final stage of state trials and preparations before the planned Bulava launch in the end of June, a source at the Sevmash shipyard told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
According to the source, the trials will continue out this week. – So far no remarks concerning the functionality of the aggregates or mechanisms have been made, he said.
The planned test in June will be the first to be conducted from the submarine the missile is designed for; the Borei-class “Yury Dolgoruky”. All the tests have so far been carried out from “Dmitri Donskoy” - a Typhoon-class submarine rebuilt into a test-platform for the Bulava missile.
As BarentsObserver reported, Russia plans to launch a total of five Bulava missiles in 2011. If the launches are successful, the missile will be taken into service in the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.
This will be the fifteenth (or sixteenth, the numbers vary from source to source) test launch of the Bulava missile. Half of the tests have failed.
“Dmitry Donskoy” has also left for sea, a blogger in Severodvinsk reports.
Read all BarentsObserver articles on the Bulava missile
