Bulava Bulava Bulava, Can’t You See?
Travis | Dec 10, 2009 |
0 This is getting ridiculous.
The new Russian SLBM, known as the Bulava, failed its third consecutive flight test yesterday. Not only did the Bulava fail, it appears to have failed so spectacularly that it set off a major UFO frenzy in Norway.
Check this out:
Yep, that may very well be the Bulava going round and round. It was something when the Bulava launched sideways, but those hypnotic spirals are a cut above.
Realistically, things will get straightened out with the Bulava eventually. Russia has built scads of nuclear missiles over the years, and they’re going to figure out what’s wrong and fix it.
In the meantime, however, NOH will continue to wonder whether mass hypnotization via Bulava spirals is the type of nuclear modernization that should worry the United States.
Russian "modernization"
Kingston Reif | Jul 31, 2009 | 0 Last week, Travis described the ongoing travails of Russia's new submarine launched ballistic missile, the Bulava. Development of the Bulava has run into some serious problems, its most recent test failure occurring in mid-July (the sixth failure of the missile in eleven flight tests). Russian officials had hoped that the Bulava would enter production by the end of 2009, but the accumulated test failures, together with the recent resignation of the director of the design bureau that is developing the missile, mean that production won't begin until much later than that.
Russia is really in a bind here. RIA Novosti reports today that the development of the missile will go on, with tests perhaps resuming as early as August. But it's not like Russia has much of a choice in the matter. As the article notes, together with the Topol-M (also known as the SS-27) long-range missile, the Project 955 Borey submarine and the associated Bulava missiles are slated to become the core of Russia's nuclear deterrent. In the words of Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin, "We have no choice - we already have one [Borey class] submarine, and have laid down more, so to start a new R&D project would be unrealistic."
Via Ria Novosti, the image of the Bulava's latest test failure is positively astounding:
For those of you who aren't familiar with how a submarine-launched ballistic missile should appear upon launch, check out this image of a prior test of the Bulava:
That's right: a successfully launched SLBM is supposed to go up, not sideways like a sea-lauched cruise missile. Methinks the Russians have a very serious problem.
Bulava Fail
Travis | Jul 23, 2009 | 0 After a series of high-profile failures, including one just last week, the director of the Russian design bureau in charge of the new Bulava SLBM has resigned, Pavel Podvig reports.
The resignation, Podvig writes,
…shows how the Soviet/Russian defense industry operates - design bureaus are generally given quite a bit of latitude in what they do and what they say as long as they deliver on their promises and don't embarrass the political leadership (which often takes some of the claims quite literally). Since the Bulava program didn't deliver, Solomonov [the director] had to pay the price.
I can’t really think of an American equivalent. Maybe Wynne and Moseley last year? Though a Bent Spear is exponentially worse than test failures, the dynamic is the same: if you embarrass the political leadership, you get shitcanned.
