Test Launch of Bulava Missile Fails

The Defense Ministry said Thursday that the latest test of its advanced submarine-launched ballistic missile Bulava has failed, with the missile self-destructing.

The failure was the seventh in 11 test launches for the Bulava and could have consequences for top missile designers and missile force commanders.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement that the missile was fired Wednesday from the submarine Dmitry Donskoi, but its first stage malfunctioned and the weapon self-destructed.

No other information was released.

“Another failure would certainly provoke serious soul searching in Russia,” Pavel Podvig, a well-known analyst of Russia’s missile forces, wrote in his blog Wednesday. “It is probably too late to shut the program down, but the fact that the industry is not able to get the missile to fly … is quite worrying.”