While the new Russian Bulava SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) continues to fail flight tests, its U.S. counterpart, the much older, 58 ton, 44 foot long Trident II, has not failed to launch successfully in twenty years. Since 1989, none of more than 120 test launches have failed. The Trident had two failures during its 49 development test launches, but since then, it has been the most reliable SLBM to ever enter service. Each Trident II costs about $65 million, and entered service in 1990. Some of them are fired every year, to insure that the current configuration (of hardware...