Global Security Newswire

Russia's effort to field a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile sustained yet another setback this week when the Bulava exploded in midair during a trial flight, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 16).

The weapon went awry shortly after being fired Wednesday from a submarine in the White Sea, exploding less than 30 seconds into flight, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Its fate was nearly identical to that of a Bulava that blew up during the last test launch in December. In total, six of the missile's 11 trial runs have ended in failure.

"It is bad that the emergency occurred during the functioning of the first stage," an unidentified Russian official told Interfax. "We thought this had been fully worked out."

"I think the situation with the missile is not hopeless," the official added. "No test of a new missile goes ahead without such problems."

Another official told the news agency RIA Novosti that the failure might not have been due to a design flaw.

"A defect could have come into the missile due to ineffective quality control on the side of the producer factory," the intelligence official said, adding that sabotage was another plausible cause for the mishap.

The Bulava is designed to deliver as many as 10 atomic warheads to targets up to 5,000 miles away. The Russian navy plans to use the missile to arm its next generation of nuclear submarines, also in development (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, July 16).

"A committee of inquiry has been set up to determine the causes" of yesterday's failure, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement (Agence France-Presse II/NASDAQ.com, July 16).