Our Take
This would be the fourth ballistic missile launch from a submarine since the collapse of the Soviet Union. A Russian test of this scope could back up the U.S. Navy’s argument about the importance of expanding its own shipbuilding account for the new class of ballistic missile submarines, which will begin procurement in the next decade.
The Russian Northern Fleet is getting ready to test combat readiness of nuclear deterrence forces. Two state-of-the-art strategic ballistic missile submarines of the Project 955, namely “Yuriy Dolgorukiy” and “Vladimir Monomakh” are awaiting their sailing orders. One of them is to volley-fire intercontinental ballistic missiles Bulava.