A Russian nuclear submarine has successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the Barents Sea, off the coast of Russia and Norway, according to Russian news agency TASS and other reports.
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The Russian Northern Fleet’s powerful nuclear-powered submarine, the Yuri Dolgoruky, recently launched the Bulava (RSM-56) ICBM, and the missile test was successful, as it hit “all the designated targets at the Kura practice range in Kamchatka,” a peninsula in the Russian Far East, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday, according to TASS.
“The Project 955 Borey-class underwater missile cruiser Yuri Dolgoruky has made a successful launch of a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile from the designated area of the Barents Sea towards the Kura practice range in Kamchatka,” the Defense Ministry said, TASS reported. “The launch was made from the submerged position in compliance with a combat training plan.”
“The parameters of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile’s flight trajectory were practiced in the normal regime. According to the confirmed data of the registering equipment, the warheads of the intercontinental ballistic missile performed a full cycle of the flight and successfully hit the designated targets at the practice range,” the Defense Ministry said, TASS reported.
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According to Newsweek, this “hit marked a rare success and a sign of further progress, as the Bulava missile project has had a troubled first decade since its start in 2004.”
Previously, in September 2016, the submarine had fired two test missiles, and while one successfully completed its cycle, the other missile blew itself up before reaching its destination.
According to TASS:
The submarine Yuri Dolgoruky is the Project 955 Borey-class lead vessel. The underwater cruiser is armed with a set of Bulava sea-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles and also with torpedoes. The sub can be armed with cruise missiles. It has a full displacement of 24,000 tonnes, is about 160 meters long and 13 meters wide.
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