The scheduled launch was conducted June 28 from the submerged Dmitry Donskoi, a Typhoon-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, in the northern Russia's White Sea, and the missile reached its target at the Kura testing grounds on the Kamchatka Peninsula, about 6,700 kilometers (4,200 miles) east of Moscow.
Admiral Vladimir Masorin said the latest test launch was important to make a decision on the ballistic missile production, adding that the concluding test launches would be made from the Yuri Dolgoruky fourth-generation strategic nuclear submarine.
The national defense program envisions the deployment of the Bulava on nuclear submarines beginning in 2007. The missiles are expected to become the mainstay of the Russian Navy's strategic nuclear forces in decades to come.
