re: #88 Teukka

It’s a very new SSBN if the details are correct, working up before its first deployment. One of the final exercises of such a workup usually involves firing at least one missile, to ensure the boat’s raison d’etre actually works and to give the crew experience in that particular operation. One of the Royal Navy’s own SSBNs was on such a workup deployment recently after a long mid-life refit. The test-fire of a Trident D5 missile did not go to plan but it did not hang up in the launch tube.

If the Russians were going to test-fire a ballistic missile I’d expect the other major nuclear powers to have been informed since only finding out about the launch when your satellite surveillance systems detect such a start-a-nuclear-war event is, ah, contraindicated.