Yury Solomonov, the designer of the troubled...
Solomonov resigned from his post as general director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology (MITT) in July 2009 after a series of unsuccessful Bulava tests, but retained his post as general designer of the missile.
"I can say in earnest that none of the design solutions have been changed as a result of the tests. The problems occur in the links of the design-technology-production chain," Solomonov said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published on Tuesday.
"Sometimes [the problem] is poor-quality materials, sometimes it is the lack of necessary equipment to exclude the "human" factor in production, sometimes it is inefficient quality control," he said.
The designer complained that the Russian industry is unable to provide Bulava manufacturers with at least 50 of the necessary components for production of the weapon. This forces designers to search for alternative solutions, seriously complicating the testing process.