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Bulava final test launch postponed till summer 2012

Тhe missile would be launched to the Kamchatka Kura testing range from the White Sea water area

MOSCOW, November 28 (Itar-Tass) — The final test launch of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile has been postponed till the summer of 2012, a source in the Russian military-industrial complex told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“There had been 17 launches. The final test launch of the Bulava missile from the Yuri Dolgoruky strategic submarine has been postponed till approximately June 2012,” the source said. “This is conditioned by the unfavourable ice situation and the bad weather in the White Sea,” it added.

Earlier, the state commission told Itar-Tass that the missile would be launched to the Kamchatka Kura testing range from the White Sea water area. “The successful launch will end the state testing programmes of the Bulava missile,” the source said.

The source did not say how many Bulava rockets would fly to the Kamchatka Kura testing range. Others said that two rockets would be fired at a small interval. The Yuri Dolgoruky has done two Bulava test launch, both of them successful. The upcoming salvo launch is an important phase of state tests necessary before the Bulava is put into service. The biggest salvo launch in the Russian Navy history was that of 16 intercontinental ballistic missiles fired from the K-407 Novomoskovsk submarine in August 1991.