The K-117 Bryansk submarine of the Project 667BDRM class performed a second successful SLBM launch on July 14, 2009 (the first one was carried out on July 13, 2009). Press reports quote Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of the General Staff, as saying that the second launch was conducted from the vicinity of the North Pole to the Chizha site on the Kola Peninsula (the missile flew along a lofted trajectory). The first missile was launched toward the Kura test site in Kamchatka. According to press reports, the missiles are Sineva modification of the R-29RM missile.
That was the second SLBM launch in two days. Will we see a third one tomorrow?
UPDATE 07/15/09: Makarov apparently did not say that the July 13 launch was from the Bryansk submarine, as some news reports suggested (it doesn't mean that it wasn't, though). The entry is corrected to reflect this.
UPDATE 07/16/09: It looks like it was Bryansk after all. UPDATE 07/19/09: No, it wasn't Bryansk.
UPDATE 07/19/09: The launch took place at 03:50 MSK (July 13, 2009, 23:50 UTC).
UPDATE 08/20/09: The Makeyev Design Bureau reportedly said that the missile was an old R-29RM, not the Sineva modification.
UPDATE 11/19/09: The missile used in the test was reportedly produced in 1991.
Comments
Pavel, Would you please give some lights on lofted or flat trajectory and Chizha testing site? RIAN reported that the US failed to detect the Russian nuclear subs near north pole before the launch of Sineva SLBM! How do you see that?
RIAN link: http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20090715/155530936.html