back in the day.  We were appalled at the failure rate during development.  The pressure (though we were not working on the point of failure) and the bad press were severe.  It was like we were gonna commit seppuku or make the damn thing work.  Now, I look at Bulava, and can only conclude that Putin is putting enormous pressure on his process engineers (cause that's where they are screwing up, for sure) and I think (for whatever it's worth as an old Cold Warrior) that Russia would be better off allying with NATO as a hedge against China.  Back in the day, one of the Kaybeeg boys told me that China was gonna be a bigger threat against both us/ussr and that for being "brothers in socialism" the Chinese were a total PITA to deal with and the Sov govt was just trying to paint a smiley face on a really bad situation for the benefit of the West. 

All the $ Putin is throwing at "aircraft carriers" and SLBMS is good news, since it means he has less money to do real damage. 

back in the day.  We were appalled at the failure rate during development.  The pressure (though we were not working on the point of failure) and the bad press were severe.  It was like we were gonna commit seppuku or make the damn thing work.  Now, I look at Bulava, and can only conclude that Putin is putting enormous pressure on his process engineers (cause that's where they are screwing up, for sure) and I think (for whatever it's worth as an old Cold Warrior) that Russia would be better off allying with NATO as a hedge against China.  Back in the day, one of the Kaybeeg boys told me that China was gonna be a bigger threat against both us/ussr and that for being "brothers in socialism" the Chinese were a total PITA to deal with and the Sov govt was just trying to paint a smiley face on a really bad situation for the benefit of the West. 

All the $ Putin is throwing at "aircraft carriers" and SLBMS is good news, since it means he has less money to do real damage.