MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) -- Russia has successfully conducted a launch of a Bulava strategic ballistic missile in a White Sea trial, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The missile was launched from the submerged Dmitry Donskoy, a Typhoon class ballistic missile submarine, and successfully hit its dummy target at the Kura test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula, a ministry source said.

It is the first test launch of the Bulava missile from a submerged position and the second overall under the trial program.

The first in-flight test launch was conducted September 27, 2005 from the Dmitry Donskoy nuclear submarine in the Northern Fleet.

In 2004, Russia successfully conducted surface and underwater pop-up tests of the Bulava missile.

Russia's Borey-class nuclear submarines will be equipped with Bulava missiles. Two submarines are being built at the Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk Region. The first submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, will be commissioned in 2006 and the second, the Alexander Nevsky, in 2007.