In June, Russia announced the sucessful test of its new Bulava ICBM. News of the Bulava's previous four failures (exploding after take-off, etc) were quietly swept aside. Only Kommersant's intrepid defense reporter Ivan Safronov, a retired colnel in the Space Rocket Forces, covered the issue. This is, until he decided to 'jump' from his apartment widnow in March.
There are now a flurry of questions as to the sucesss of the latest Bulava test. "The main designer of the Bulava, Yuri Solomonov, has in the past attributed the multiple mishaps of test-launches to the progressive degradation of the Russian defense industry, the inferior quality of Russian-made components and materials, and the 'loss' of key military technology (Jamestown)."
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