Russia test-fires Bulava from one of its newest missile submarines

The Russian Pacific Fleet’s ballistic missile submarine Generalissimo Suvorov fired a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile from beneath the Sea of Okhotsk on Oct. 28, sending it across the country to the Chizha test range in the Arkhangelsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said the launch was carried out from a submerged position as part of the crew’s planned combat training, and the Pacific Fleet said that, according to tracking data, the missile’s warheads arrived in the designated area at the planned time. The flight path took the missile from Russia’s Far East to the far north of its European territory, a route the Pacific Fleet uses to test the readiness of its strategic submarines.

“The crew of the Project 955A Borei-A class strategic nuclear-powered missile submarine Generalissimo Suvorov of the Pacific Fleet, in accordance with the combat training plan, test-fired a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile aimed at the Chizha test range in the Arkhangelsk region,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The K-553 Generalissimo Suvorov is one of Russia’s newest strategic submarines and the third of the upgraded Borei-A class, a fourth-generation design from the Rubin Central Design Bureau in St. Petersburg. The Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk laid it down on Dec. 26, 2014, and the Russian Navy commissioned it on Dec. 29, 2022. Before entering service, the submarine fired a Bulava from the White Sea on Nov. 3, 2022, with the warheads striking the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the opposite direction to this week’s flight.

In 2023, the submarine sailed from the Northern Fleet to the Pacific along the Northern Sea Route and arrived at its permanent base in Vilyuchinsk on Kamchatka on Oct. 16, 2023, where it joined the 25th submarine division. TASS reported that the boat’s imported components have been replaced with Russian-made equipment.

Each Borei-class submarine carries 16 Bulava missiles. The Bulava is a solid-fuel missile developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering, the design bureau behind the Topol-M and Yars land-based missiles, and it is launched from underwater so the submarine does not have to surface and reveal its position. Each missile can carry multiple nuclear warheads that separate and fly to individual targets, and the Barents Observer has reported that each Bulava carries six. Russia formally accepted the missile into service in May 2024 after years of testing that began with a first launch in 2005.

The Sea of Okhotsk-to-Chizha route has been used before by Pacific Fleet submarines. In December 2020, the Borei-class Vladimir Monomakh fired a salvo of four Bulava missiles from the same sea toward the same range in the Arkhangelsk region, the first time a Borei had launched four missiles in a single salvo.

Russia’s Borei and Borei-A submarines are replacing the Soviet-era Delta-class boats that carried the naval leg of Russia’s nuclear deterrent for decades, with the Generalissimo Suvorov and its sister ships forming the core of the Pacific Fleet’s strategic submarine force at Kamchatka.