Bulava: Russia’s new nuclear submarine tests intercontinental missile

Russia-US ties at an all-time low

The CTBT aimed to put an end to nuclear testing and bring a thaw in relations between Russia and the US, both of whom had amassed nuclear-capable weapons. While Russia ratified the treaty, the US imposed a moratorium on nuclear testing, and relations between the nations were improving.

Nearly three decades later, the relations between the two countries are at an all-time low, especially after Russia invaded Ukraine last year and Western powers led by the US lent its arms support to Ukraine.

Earlier this year, Russia also suspended its participation in the New START Treaty, a nuclear arms control pact between Moscow and Washington and the last of its kind, Al Jazeerareported. Russia maintained that it would respect the cap on nuclear weapons set by the treaty.

Test-fire, a show of nuclear capability

Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has continued to build its weapons capability and developed hypersonic missiles, even as the US has struggled. On the nuclear front, Russia has built nuclear submarines under the 955 Borei project. The Imperator Alexander III is the seventh such submarine in the fleet and the fourth of the modernized variant.

NATO recognizes these submarines as the Dolgoruky class of submarines, after the name of the first vessel, the Yuri Dolgoruky, that the Russian Navy inducted after the Cold War. The submarine can carry 16 Bulava ICBMs. Each of these missiles is 40 feet (12 m) long and has a range of 5,000 miles (8,000 km).

The Russian defense ministry has claimed that it fired one such Bulava missile from an underwater position in the White Sea off Russia's northern coast. The missile reached its target thousands of miles away in the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East. Russia did not announce when this test was conducted.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, the Bulava missile is capable of carrying as many as six nuclear warheads. The Alexander III is expected to carry a more maneuverable and quieter version of the Bulava ICBM, and firing it was part of the final tests before a decision on its induction can be taken, the Russian defense ministry said in its statement.

Apart from Alexander III, Russia has three Borei class submarines in operation, another in final testing phases, and three in production as part of its plans to strengthen its naval presence.