Outside View: Tank, rocket chaos -- Part 2

MOSCOW, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile's record does not in any way match the standards of previous Russian missile tests.

The Russian navy already has a fine liquid-fuel SLBM in the RSM-54, and its latest version, the Sineva R-29RMU -- NATO designation Skiff SSN-23 -- once more successfully tested on Dec. 25, 2007. The RSM-54 carries four, and the Sineva -- with a service life of several decades -- 10 multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs with a yield of 100Kt each.

The RSM-54 can also be mounted with a HEF warhead of about two tons of conventional explosives for use in a non-nuclear conflict, or with a low-yield nuclear warhead -- equivalent to up to 50 tons of TNT -- for pinpoint hits.

Why the Russian navy needs an under-tested intercontinental ballistic missile is not clear. It must finally be acknowledged that sea-based solid-fuel missiles are not Russia's strong point. True, Akula-type submarines were once armed with solid-fuel RSM-52s. However, their Bark modernization program was discontinued following several abortive launches.

If the thinking behind the new sea missile is confused, the motives for developing yet another combat tank are equally murky and require a lot of research to understand.

For the record, Russia has five combat, or main battle tanks in service: the T-62 and the T-64, which are no longer produced, the T-72, which has spawned further versions, and its modifications the T-80 and T-90, which have the status of new tanks.

For all that, only a handful of battalions in Russia are equipped with tanks of the last type, and both the T-80 and the T-90 have much room for improvement, especially in their propulsion machinery -- the weakest spot of Russian tanks.

So, even without a new tank project, arms companies such as Uralvagonzavod should have their hands full -- in the first place with some solid research into turbo-diesels, which showed such fine performance in the mid-1980s and replaced the fuel-guzzling and fickle gas turbine engines on T-80s.

Incidentally, it is its robust diesel engine that has won enviable export fame for the T-90, a tank not yet well tried in the Russian armed forces themselves. In 2001 Russia and India signed a contract for the delivery of 310 T-90 tanks, and early in December 2007 India was reported to have ordered another 347.

As such, thought cannot be stopped, but the designer's ideas stemming from a pool of technological data are one thing, and fondly nostalgic reports of success are quite another.

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(Andrei Kislyakov is a political commentator for RIA Novosti. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

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(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)