Article Posted on : - Dec 02, 2008

Russia had test fired the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile on November 28. Photo credit: RIA Novosti

MOSCOW (BNS): Although the Bulava Inter Continental Ballistic Missile has gone into full-scale production, Russia will hold another test launch of the weapon later this month, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov has said.

“Before the end of the year, another Bulava test would be conducted, though the defence industry enterprises had already started full-scale missile production,” Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Ivanov as saying here on Monday.

Last week, Russia had conducted the Bulava missile test from the Dmitry Donskoi Typhoon-class strategic nuclear-powered submarine in the White Sea, effectively engaging its designated target on the Kamchatka Peninsula about 6,700 km east of Moscow.

The agency said Russia was planning to adopt new Bulava missiles for service with the Navy and commission the first Borey-class strategic nuclear submarine in 2009. The Bulava (SS-NX-30), developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, is designed for deployment on Borey-class Project 955 nuclear-powered submarines.

The first submarine in the series, the Yury Dolgoruky, was built at the Sevmash shipyard in the northern Arkhangelsk Region and is currently undergoing sea trials.

The submarine has a length of 170 meters, a body diameter of around 13 meters, and a submerged speed of about 29 knots. It will be equipped with 16 Bulava ballistic missiles, each carrying up to 10 nuclear warheads and having a range of 8,000 km, it added.