AS reported in SW May 10th ! - Spy Uncovered in Urals Spilled Missile Secrets

Moscow plans to make the submarine-launched Bulava missile the cornerstone of its nuclear arsenal.

Moscow plans to make the submarine-launched Bulava missile the cornerstone of its nuclear arsenal.

An employee of a "closed" enterprise in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg has been accused of leaking secrets about the intercontinental Bulava missile, Kommersant reported Monday.

A Sverdlovsk regional court held proceedings against the employee, who is accused of transferring classified information to foreign intelligence relating to the control systems of the submarine-launched Bulava, a law enforcement source told the daily.

"The evidence proving his guilt is sufficient, though the details of the affair are not being revealed yet because they include state secrets," the source said. "What exactly was passed and to which government is so far also not yet released."

Experts in the Urals military-industrial complex said the employee was likely part of the research and production association Automatic, whose experts are directly involved in launching rockets and designing their management systems.

Moscow aims to make the 12-meter-long Bulava the cornerstone of its nuclear arsenal. A Bulava missile weighs 36.8 tonnes and can travel a distance of 8,000 kilometers carrying six to 10 nuclear warheads, which would deliver an impact of up to 100 times the atomic blast that devastated Hiroshima in 1945. The missile's development has been plagued by failed launches, with only 10 of its 18 tests considered successful.