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NEW NUCLEAR SUBMARINES TO SAIL WITHOUT BULAVA MISSILES

RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, February 4 (RIA Novosti)- Alexander Belousov, Russia's first deputy defense minister, recently announced that the Navy would receive two strategic nuclear submarines equipped with state-of-the-art Bulava (Mace) ballistic missiles, Novaya Gazeta writes.
However, the Bulava only exists on paper. Its general designer Yury Solomonov recently said that the first missile would not be test-fired before 2006. This means that the Navy will only get the new weapons about four years later, so the Yury Dolgoruky and Dmitry Donskoi submarines will have to sail without them.
The former's keel was laid in 1996, whereas it took more than ten years to modernize the latter. The Navy's command did its best to complete both submarines when the money to do so appeared, which testifies to the Defense Ministry's inability to plan long-term. At the same time, ministry officials constantly complain about financial problems. General Belousov said that the military received just 25% of the required combat-training appropriations.
Civil control seems essential. At times, the military squanders taxpayers' money because parliament allocates money without knowing how it will be spent.
State Duma deputies voted obediently to set aside 187 billion rubles for the army's weapons-procurement program this year ($1=28 rubles). The Defense Ministry's board then held a session on how to use the money. It was eventually decided to commission the Dolgoruky and the Donskoi without missiles.