MOSCOW, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Russia is going to stick with the troubled Bulava sea-launched ICBM, its defense minister said Wednesday.
"There have been failed tests (of the Bulava) but this is normal," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told members of the State Duma, the main chamber of the Russian parliament, at a meeting Wednesday, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
"If we had put the missile into service and then there had been failures, that would have been a nightmare, but we have not," Ivanov said.
Ivanov told the Duma members that historically Russian and Soviet ICBM development took three to four years before the new weapons were deployed.
"In Soviet days, at least 20-25 test launches were conducted," and the tests were never completed without some technical problems and failures, he said.
The R-30 Bulava -- NATO designation N-SS-NX-30 -- is the submarine-launched version of Russia's most advanced missile, the Topol-M, or SS-27, solid fuel intercontinental ballistic missile. "Designed at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, the missile can carry up to 10 nuclear warheads and has a range of 8,000 kilometers (about 5,000 miles)," RIA Novosti said.
Ivanov said that despite the three most recent test failures, there was no dangers to the public from unsuccessful Bulava test launches. "I don't see any threat to nuclear safety," he said.
The Bulava is designed to be launched from Borey 955 class nuclear submarines. Each Bulava is designed to carry at least 10 independently targeted multiple re-entry vehicles, or MIRV, warheads, any one of which can destroy a city. Most MIRV warheads cannot be intercepted by the new U.S. ballistic defense systems, which are designed to guard against only limited ballistic missile attacks from so-called "rogue" states.
