Iran Press/ Europe: Russia's new strategic nuclear submarine, the Imperator Alexander III, has successfully tested a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, the Russian defense ministry said on Sunday.
The missile, which the Federation of American Scientists says is designed to carry up to six nuclear warheads, was launched from an underwater position in the White Sea off Russia's northern coast and hit a target thousands of kilometers away on the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East, the defense ministry said.
"Firing a ballistic missile is the final element of state tests, after which a decision will be made to accept the cruiser into the Navy," a ministry statement said.
The Imperator Alexander III is the seventh of the Russian Project 955 Borei (Arctic Wind) class nuclear submarines and the fourth of the modernized Borei-A variant, according to Russian sources.
The 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty treaty outlaws all nuclear explosions, including live tests of nuclear weapons, although key countries including the US and China have never ratified it.
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