MOSCOW, September 20 (RIA Novosti) – The people responsible for the crash of a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile at the start of September will be held accountable and possibly fired, a Russian military official told reporters on Friday.
The solution to the problem of the Sept. 6 launch failure of a Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) will be “implemented very harshly,” said Oleg Bochkarev, deputy chairman of the Military-Industrial Commission, adding that personnel would not be exempt from the consequences for the launch’s failure.
“Of course they’ll get to the bottom of it, don’t doubt it for a second,” he said.
Bochkarev said that the commission is still investigating what caused the missile to malfunction in the second minute of its flight during state trials of the Alexander Nevsky nuclear-powered submarine in the White Sea.
He told RIA Novosti earlier this week that all Bulava missiles from the same batch as the one that failed on Sept. 6 will undergo additional tests by their manufacturer.
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also ordered that trials of two nuclear submarines be halted as a result of the crash.
Including this latest failure, eight out of 19 or 20 test launches of the troubled Bulava have been officially declared unsuccessful.
![Timeline of Bulava Missile Launches Timeline of Bulava Missile Launches - Sputnik International](https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/18355/57/183555760_0:0:998:1430_600x0_80_0_0_5bc820d28f487472ae3deb725fbc68bf.jpg)
Despite repeated problems with the missile, the Russian military maintains that there is no alternative to the three-stage Bulava, which carries up to 10 MIRV warheads, has a range of over 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) and is designed for deployment on Borey-class nuclear submarines.