What has happened to the Bulava missile, the submarine-launched new star of Russia's formidable strategic weapons arsenal? Everything seemed to be shining on the Bulava. It had three successful test launches in a row. It was not some radical new design with untested technology but a mature adaptation of the already tried and tested Top-M intercontinental ballistic missile. It did not lack funds for development. With soaring global oil prices, the Russian government, as the world's largest energy exporter, has been spending more money on upgrading and modernizing its strategic rocket forces than at any time in the past quarter century.
Then suddenly it all started to go wrong for the Bulava. Test ICBM launches failed three times in a row in a brief four month period in the second half of last year. The third failure occurred on Dec. 24
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