A few days ago, all the Russian media and the world with some apprehension spread the news: in the waters of the White Sea, the strategic missile submarine Yuri Dolgoruky, under the command of Captain 1st Rank V. Shirin, launched the Bulava ballistic missile. The Russian Ministry of Defense officially announced that the missile launch was successful in all monitored parameters. The warheads were delivered by the Bulava ballistic missile on time to the specified area on the territory of the Kamchatka Territory, the Kura training ground. The crew of the submarine during the test launch showed high combat skills and professionalism.
The current test launch of the rocket was the 15th in a row. Previously, it was planned for December 17, 2010, but then it was postponed due to the unavailability of the submarine. According to the official version, the reason was a difficult ice situation in the White Sea. The tests carried out on Tuesday took place in the same area.
Of the previous 14 Bulava test launches, seven are considered successful or partly successful, the rest are emergency for various reasons, which the Defense Ministry prefers not to talk about. The preliminary test launch of the Bulava missile was carried out on October 29, 2010 from the Dmitry Donskoy heavy nuclear-powered missile submarine strategic submarine, which had been previously reequipped for launching a new missile.
According to Viktor Litovkin, editor-in-chief of Nezavisimoye Voennoye Obozreniye, after the current triumph, there is a belief that until the end of this year both the Bulava missiles and the nuclear submarine with such a loud historical name - Yuri Dolgoruky - will be introduced into the the composition of the Russian Navy.
“It is necessary to understand that the rocket is not only involved in the launch, there is also a launcher located on the submarine, and then a whole system of guidance, flight control, launching and more - all this is installed on the boat,” notes Viktor Litovkin. - Realistically, figuratively speaking, the submarine Yuri Dolgoruky seems to have been married to the Bulava tactical missile. That is, this launch is really their wedding march of Mendelssohn and nothing else. The rocket and the boat have all the prerequisites that by the end of 2011 they will be introduced into a single armament complex. But before that, there will still be 5-6 launches of the Bulava rocket from this boat, one of which is to be fired in a salvo. That is, not one rocket launched, but not less than two or three, which should be launched almost simultaneously from the submarine."
At the same time, in the Russian Ministry of Defense itself, they prefer to keep silent about their immediate plans. The reason for such secrecy remains a mystery, and many are wondering whether the 15th Bulava launch was so successful?
In connection with the test launch of the Bulava missile, the US military became somewhat nervous. In response to tests by Russian sailors of a completely new ballistic missile, which, incidentally, some experts called “a missile that cannot fly,” the US military announced the start of testing a new missile defense system that could easily intercept Bulava.
The problem for the Americans is that if Russia has proved that its missile can still fly, then their interception complex with such successes cannot please their government. In the United States, a serious scandal begins to flare up in this regard. The fact that the multibillion-dollar project, as it turned out in practice, is not working, became known just a few days ago, and the senators of the upper house are quite harsh about the misuse of budget funds.
But that's not all. Overseas senators, who had hitherto been unshakably confident that in a few years the United States would receive a truly invulnerable nuclear roof, had to experience an even more significant shock when they first learned that the existing sea-based anti-missile missiles did not have the ability to shoot down obsolete ballistic missiles. classes of a possible enemy. Rather, as it turned out, the SM-3 anti-missile missiles, vaunted by high officials from the Pentagon, cannot fulfill their task in the early stages of flight.
After the end of the evening hearings in the upper house of the US Senate, Senator Richard Shelby was the loudest of all outraged: "Throughout this time, we have been imposed a system of protection that does not work." His associates also expressed their negative opinion about the work of military specialists in the field of missile defense.
It is obvious that the successful launch of the Russian Bulava and the fact that its missile defense was inoperable put the Americans in an awkward position. They spent billions of dollars on the creation of an anti-nuclear umbrella, abandoned the installation of an anti-missile defense system in the UK, and as a result, in the eternal world leadership dispute, they lose to Russia in all respects. For us, it is, of course, like a balm, and for Americans it is like salt on a fresh wound.
