Russian Navy to acquire world’s most powerful mace

Russian Navy got the newest quasi-ballistic missile Bulava-M (mace). The Commander of the Russian Navy Admiral of Fleet Vladimir Masorin during his visit to Sevastopol, the town of the Russian naval glory, publicly announced that serial manufacturing of the new generation strategic naval missile Bulava-M will be started before completing the program of flight tests.

Photo: Russian Navy to acquire world’s most powerful mace

Russian Navy to acquire world’s most powerful mace

Allegedly this decision is based on the last successful tests of the missile held on June, 29 when the specially fitted test sub Dmitry Donskoi launched Bulava from the submarine position in the White sea and the warhead of the missile hit the target area in the test field in Kamchatka peninsular. Some media sources reported that several splitting warheads did not reach the target.

However, Masorin assured that only the units which had proven technical stability will be put into serial production. It means that the missile will be perfected after its commissioning. However, according to unofficial sources of Pravda.Ru there must have been several tests (maybe ground based tests) of the missile not reported to the media. Therefore the performance of the complex might be better than it is described in the media after several reported failures.

Most important is that the next two test launchings will be made by Yuri Dolgoruky, project 955 Borei sub, for which the new missile had been developed. Most likely it will take place before the end of the year. Vladimir Masorin admitted that any unexpected things might still happen, but this is the reason why the tests go on. We do not doubt the successful tests of the rocket complex, he said. It proves the information from the unofficial sources of Pravda.Ru that Yuri Dolgoruky will be put in the water in September. Sailing tests previously scheduled for October might be either delayed or include the test launchings.

The full-fledged flight tests are to finish by the end of the following year. Earlier the Commander of the Navy stated that the final stage of the tests will be so called maximum distance launching. What it means remained “absolutely secret”, however, it seems that commissioning the new generation missile for the new generation sub does not heed maximum distance.

Yuri Seleznev
Pravda.Ru