Global Security Newswire

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week said his country's navy would place the new Bulava ballistic missile on active duty following the recent end of trial launches involving the submarine-fired weapon, RIA Novosti reported (see GSN, Dec. 23, 2011).

“We have made a very important step -- we have completed the cycle of flight tests … of the Bulava missile,” Medvedev said on Dec. 27. “Now it will be put into service.”

Russia late last month test-fired two Bulava missiles that operated as anticipated, marking the 18th and 19th trials of the weapon.

Moscow has deemed 11 of the Bulava's 19 trial launches to have been successes, but a number of experts said performance aberrations might have been significantly more frequent. Just one of the missile's initial 12 trials unfolded exactly as intended, Russian defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said.

Russia's armed forces have said no substitute exists for the missile, which is designed to deliver as many as 10 independently targeted nuclear warheads as far as 5,000 miles. The Russian government said production problems had thwarted some trials of the weapon, which is intended for placement on the navy's new Borei-class submarines (RIA Novosti I, Dec. 27, 2011).

Separately, Russia on Dec. 27 conducted a trial flight of a nuclear-capable RS-18 ICBM (see GSN, Oct. 22, 2008). The missile, also referred to as the SS-19 Stiletto, lifted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome, Russian strategic missile forces representative Col. Vadim Koval said (see GSN, Oct. 12, 2011).

“The goal of the test launch is to prove the stability and basic technical characteristics of missiles of this kind,” the official said.

The strategic missile forces were mulling the option of adding an additional year to the weapon's usage period, for a total of 33 years, Koval said.

The RS-18 missile is built to accommodate six warheads, and the liquid-fuel weapon is designed to be fired from underground facilities. Russia's fourth-generation strategic delivery systems include the RS-18 ICBM as well as the RS- 16 and RS-20 missiles (RIA Novosti II, Dec. 27, 2011).

Meanwhile, Russia on Friday indicated it had "totally extinguished" a 20-hour fire on an unarmed ballistic-missile submarine, Reuters reported. The Yekaterinburg is capable of holding 16 four-warhead missiles and is thought to have test-fired an ICBM last July.

Crews disarmed the vessel in advance of planned maintenance, and its atomic power systems had been deactivated, a Defense Ministry representative said.

The Russian Emergency Ministry added in released remarks: "Radiation indicators are within normal levels. There is no threat to the local population" (Andrei Pronin, Reuters, Dec. 30, 2011).

Elsewhere, Russian Col. Oleg Koval on Monday reaffirmed plans for a second regiment in the Teikovo missile division to adopt Yars ballistic missile systems this year.

Last March, an initial Teikovo division regiment "composed of two missile divisions armed with the Yars system with the RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile went on combat duty,” the officer told ITAR-Tass. “The divisions carried out the tasks of trial duty and confirmed all of the declared tactical and technical characteristics of the missile system, its reliability.”

When the RS-24 system entered service, “the strategic [missile] forces increased their capability for piercing missile defense," he said. Moscow has been loudly critical of NATO plans for deploying a European missile shield, declaring the system could pose a threat to the Russian strategic nuclear force. The alliance has said the shield would be intended to counter Iranian ballistic missile threats  (ITAR-Tass, Jan. 2).