Bulava (missile)

The "Bulava" («Булава», “mace”) is a Submarine-launched ballistic missile under development in Russia. The Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology is chiefly responsible for the missile's design.

The Bulava carries the NATO reporting name SS-NX-30 and has been assigned the GRAU index 3M30. In international treaties, the common designation RSM-56 is used.

The decision on developing the “Bulava” missile was adopted in 1998 after three unsuccessful tests of the “Bark” missile of the Miass Construction Bureau named after Makeev.

The Bulava design is based on the SS-27 (Topol M), but is both lighter and more sophisticated. The two missiles are expected to have comparable ranges, and similar CEP and warhead configurations.

The Russian military developed Bulava to possess advanced defense capabilities making it nearly impervious to existing and future missile-defense systems. Among its claimed abilities are evasive maneuvering, mid-course countermeasures and decoys and a warhead fully shielded against both physical and EMP damage. The Bulava is designed to be capable of surviving a nuclear blast at a minimum distance of 500 meters. President Putin has stated that Bulava could penetrate any potential anti-missile defence system.

The current version of the Bulava is able to carry up to six MIRV warheads, future variants are expected to carry a maximum of ten. A full-capacity payload requires the forfeiture of all final stage countermeasures and of some shielding.

The missile completed the first stage launch-tests at the end of 2004. It was originally scheduled for completion in late 2006, but is now not expected to enter service until 2009.

The test launches conducted on June 28, 2007, September 27, 2005, and December 21, 2005, from the Dmitry Donskoi, a Typhoon class ballistic missile submarine, were successful. The next three flight tests, on September 7, 2006, October 25, 2006, and December 24, 2006, ended in failures of the missile, the causes of which have not yet been revealed. The most recent successful launch of the Bulava happened on September 18, 2008 on Russia’s pacific coast. The missile flew almost the whole length of the country, however the performance of the payload is in dispute by various sources.

The first boats to carry the Bulava will be the forthcoming Borei-class submarines, which will be outfitted with sixteen missiles each (the first submarine of the class will have twelve launchers only). The first three boats of this class will be deployed in 2010 (a total of 5 were planned for 2015). A land-based variant is also expected.

On the 5 August, 2007 Russia made a decision to start serial production of the Bulava sea-launched ballistic missile. However this didn't happen and after a longer period of reviewing the program the decision was made to continue the flight-testing. In July 25 2008 the Dmitri Donskoi went to sea to conduct a test launch of the missile . The latest was conducted on September 18, 2008 at 18:45 Moscow time Some reports did however say that the test was not quite successful and that the bus failed to separate the warheads, or that the missile carried no warheads at all

On september 19 2008 a senior Navy official announced that Russia will adopt the new Bulava-M submarine-based ballistic missile for service with the Navy in 2009 .

Test	Type of test	comment
#1 12/11/03	Pop-up test of a mockup of the missile.	Success
#2 09/23/04	Pop-up test	Success
#3 09/27/05	First flight test. Launch from a surfaced submarine. Reports about failure of the third stage	Success(?)
#4 12/21/05	First launch from a submerged submarine.	Success
#5 09/07/06	Launch from a submerged submarine. The first stage failed shortly after launch.	Failure
#6 10/25/06	Launch from a submerged submarine. Failure of the first stage.	Failure
#7 12/24/06	From a surfaced submarine. Problems with the third stage.	Failure
#8 06/28/07	Unconfirmed reports about problems with one of the warheads.	Success(?)
#9 09/18/08	Subsurface launch at 18:45, warheads hit target at 19:05. Some warhead problems?	Success(?)

Operator

: The Russian Navy is scheduled to be the sole operator of the Bulava.

References

External links

• MissileThreat news articles, primarily with an American view of events.
• Russia's Bulava undergoes fast-track test programme, May 2006.
• Technical data in PDF, DTIG.
• Technical data