Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
London Daily Telegraph
October 3, 2008
By Adrian Blomfield, in Moscow
Russia is to build eight nuclear submarines by 2015 as part of an ambitious plan to overhaul the country's ailing navy.
Senior military officials said that the new ships will be equipped with the country's problem-plagued submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Bulava-30.
Russia is struggling to revamp its dilapidated military structure in order to give substance to an increasingly assertive foreign policy that has seen warships and bombers deployed to the far corners of the world for the first time since the Cold War.
Last week, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, announced a dramatic rearmament programme that would see the construction of new missile defence system and the mass production of warships and multi-purpose submarines.
Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, also announced that defence spending would increase by 27 per cent next year to £54 billion.
Russia's navy, perhaps the most decrepit arm of the country's armed forces, desperately needs modernization. With 50 per cent of the fleet estimated to be in dry docks at anyone time, Russia's warships have a reputation for frequently breaking down.
Unable to challenge the West's conventional superiority, Russia has had to rely on its nuclear deterrent. At sea, that has meant developing the Bulava and a fleet of Borei-class nuclear submarines to carry it.
Already three years behind schedule, the Bulava could be launched in 2009, the defence ministry said.
"I hope we'll accept the Bulava-30 for service next year," Col-Gen Vladimir Popovkin, a deputy defence minister, said.
Western military experts are not so sure.
The Bulava has only been successfully tested four times, while most new nuclear missiles need at least 12 launches to be officially commissioned.
While Russia's military boasted of a successful test last month, information that has emerged since suggests that the missile's warheads failed to separate during the last phase of the launch.
Only one of the submarines meant to carry the missiles is ready. Russia had announced that 12 Borei-class submarines would be launched and it is unclear whether the eight vessels announced yesterday were part of that number.
The Russian navy currently has 14 strategic submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles and 58 non-tactical submarines.
In July, Russia also revealed it would build four or five new aircraft carriers to replace the ramshackle Admiral Kuznetsov, the only vessel of its kind in the fleet. While the announcement was seen as a declaration of the Kremlin's ambitions, it also raised eyebrows in the West as Russia has no shipyards capable of building such large vessels.
Critics say the best way to better the country's armed forces is to improve the woeful living standards of its servicemen, most of whom are conscripts, and to tackle corruption. One-third of defence spending is either embezzled or misspent, analysts estimate.
October 3, 2008
By Adrian Blomfield, in Moscow
Russia is to build eight nuclear submarines by 2015 as part of an ambitious plan to overhaul the country's ailing navy.
Senior military officials said that the new ships will be equipped with the country's problem-plagued submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Bulava-30.
Russia is struggling to revamp its dilapidated military structure in order to give substance to an increasingly assertive foreign policy that has seen warships and bombers deployed to the far corners of the world for the first time since the Cold War.
Last week, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, announced a dramatic rearmament programme that would see the construction of new missile defence system and the mass production of warships and multi-purpose submarines.
Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, also announced that defence spending would increase by 27 per cent next year to £54 billion.
Russia's navy, perhaps the most decrepit arm of the country's armed forces, desperately needs modernization. With 50 per cent of the fleet estimated to be in dry docks at anyone time, Russia's warships have a reputation for frequently breaking down.
Unable to challenge the West's conventional superiority, Russia has had to rely on its nuclear deterrent. At sea, that has meant developing the Bulava and a fleet of Borei-class nuclear submarines to carry it.
Already three years behind schedule, the Bulava could be launched in 2009, the defence ministry said.
"I hope we'll accept the Bulava-30 for service next year," Col-Gen Vladimir Popovkin, a deputy defence minister, said.
Western military experts are not so sure.
The Bulava has only been successfully tested four times, while most new nuclear missiles need at least 12 launches to be officially commissioned.
While Russia's military boasted of a successful test last month, information that has emerged since suggests that the missile's warheads failed to separate during the last phase of the launch.
Only one of the submarines meant to carry the missiles is ready. Russia had announced that 12 Borei-class submarines would be launched and it is unclear whether the eight vessels announced yesterday were part of that number.
The Russian navy currently has 14 strategic submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles and 58 non-tactical submarines.
In July, Russia also revealed it would build four or five new aircraft carriers to replace the ramshackle Admiral Kuznetsov, the only vessel of its kind in the fleet. While the announcement was seen as a declaration of the Kremlin's ambitions, it also raised eyebrows in the West as Russia has no shipyards capable of building such large vessels.
Critics say the best way to better the country's armed forces is to improve the woeful living standards of its servicemen, most of whom are conscripts, and to tackle corruption. One-third of defence spending is either embezzled or misspent, analysts estimate.