Russia announced on Sunday that it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads, from a nuclear submarine 4.e generation
The launch of the Bulava missile, the first in about a year, comes shortly after Russia revoked its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
“The new strategic nuclear submarine Emperor Alexander III successfully fired the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile from the White Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The missile hit its target located at a test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East “at the scheduled time,” he said.
With a range of 8,000 kilometers and 12 meters in length, the Boulava (SS-NX-30 in the NATO classification) can be equipped with ten nuclear warheads.
the submarine Emperor Alexander IIIof the Borei class, is equipped with 16 Bulava missiles, according to the Russian military.
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has blown hot and cold on the use of nuclear weapons, deploying tactical nuclear weapons in the summer of 2023 to Belarus, Russia’s closest ally, Moscow.
On Thursday, Putin signed a law revoking Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, amid a conflict in Ukraine and crisis with the West.
Opened for signature in 1996 and ratified by Russia in 2000, this treaty has never entered into force, because so far it has been ratified by only too few states, among the 44 countries that possessed nuclear facilities at the time of his writing.
The United States has not ratified it.
Russia, however, intends to “continue respecting the moratorium on nuclear tests”, despite this revocation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
