The Burevestnik is one of the six new Russian strategic weapons unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 1 March 2018.[4][7] This effort bears similarity to the discontinued US Project Pluto from 1957, which although functional, was perceived as too provocative, less effective than ICBMs, and presented radiological emissions that made scheduling test flights difficult.[8]
A cruise missile has the advantage over a ballistic missile of being able to fly under and around missile defense radars and interceptors.[9] However, conventional jet-propelled missiles have a limited flight time and range. Power from nuclear fission offers far more energy from a given mass of fuel which, if it could be used for propulsion, would hypothetically allow a missile to be launched far outside the defensive zone of a target, to take a circuitous route that avoids defenses, and to loiter for an extended period. The United States developed a SLAM nuclear-powered cruise missile during the 1950s, achieving successful full power testing of Tory II-A and -C but abandoned the project, in part due to the radioactive pollution that would result from deployment.
Development
The Russian defense industry began developing an intercontinental-range nuclear-powered cruise missile capable of penetrating any interceptor-based missile defense system. It is said to have unlimited range and can evade missile defenses.[5] A significant stage of trials of the Burevestnik complex's cruise missile, the nuclear power unit tests, was completed in January 2019.[10][better source needed]
The cruise missile received the name Burevestnik (which translates as Storm petrel, a seabird) as a result of an open vote on the Ministry of Defence of Russia's website.[11][12]
According to US researchers Decker Eveleth and Jeffrey Lewis, based on imagery analysis of launch pad construction and storage facilities, the probable deployment site for the Burevestnik is Vologda-20 located at Chebsara, around 300 miles north of Moscow.[13]
Design speculation
According to Vladimir Putin and the Russian Ministry of Defense, the missile's dimensions are comparable to the Kh-101 cruise missile, but the claimed operational range is orders of magnitude greater than that of the Kh-101. It is equipped with a small-sized nuclear power unit. An official presentation shows that the missile starts from an inclined launcher using a detachable rocket booster.[14]
Pavel Ivanov from VPK-news states that the cruise missile is one and a half to two times the size of the Kh-101, and the wings of the Burevestnik are rooted "on top of the fuselage, rather than below it like on the Kh-101." He also notes that there are "characteristic protrusions where air is most likely heated by the nuclear reactor". According to Ivanov, the mass of the Burevestnik is "several times to order of magnitude" greater than that of the Kh-101, which eliminates Tu-160 and Tu-95 as potential carriers of the missile.[15]
According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Burevestnik is a nuclear thermal rocket with a solid-fueled booster engine. The length of the missile is 12 m (39 ft) at launch and 9 m (30 ft) in flight. The nose has the shape of an "ellipse 1 m (3.3 ft) × 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in size".[16]
Military expert Anton Lavrov, in the Izvestia article, suggested that the design of the Burevestnik uses a ramjet engine, which, unlike the more traditional propulsion systems for nuclear weapons, will have radioactive exhaust throughout its entire operation.[17]
Stratfor, an American geopolitical intelligence platform, assumes that Burevestnik utilizes a turbojet engine and a liquid-fueled booster.[18]
According to James Hockenhull, the UK's Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI), the Burevestnik is a "sub-sonic nuclear-powered cruise missile system which has global reach and would allow attack from unexpected directions." Per Hockenhull, the missile would have "a near indefinite loiter time".[19]
According to CNBC, the explosion occurred during an attempt to recover a missile from the seabed, which was lost during a previously failed test.[26] On 10 October, Thomas DiNanno, member of the United States delegation to the United Nations General Assembly First Committee, stated that the "August 8th 'Skyfall' incident [...] was the result of a nuclear reaction that occurred during the recovery of a Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile", which "remained on the bed of the White Sea since its failed test early last year".[27]
On 26 August 2019, Aleksei Karpov, Russia's envoy to international organizations in Vienna, stated that the accident was linked to the development of weapons which Russia had to begin creating as "one of the tit-for-tat measures in the wake of the United States' withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty".[28]
On 21 November 2019, at the ceremony of presentation of posthumous awards to the dead men's families, Vladimir Putin stated that the scientists killed in the explosion on 8 August had been testing an “unparalleled” weapon: “We are talking about the most advanced and unparalleled technical ideas and solutions about weapons design to ensure Russia’s sovereignty and security for decades to come". He also noted that the "weapon is to be perfected regardless of anything".[29][30][31]
Test flights
On 5 October 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed that the missile had been successfully flight tested, though Western media sources such as the BBC cast doubt on this claim noting that there was no independent confirmation.[32][33][34] According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), an advocacy group focused on reducing nuclear, biological and emergent technology risks, "The Burevestnik has a poor test record of at least 13 known tests, with only two partial successes, since 2016"[35]
Project Pluto – the nuclear ramjet engine development program for SLAM
The Lost Missile – a 1958 fictional film focusing on a similar weapon
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^Harkins, Hugh (2019). SLAM, Project Pluto and the Uninhabited Nuclear Powered Bomber. London: Centurion Publishing. pp. 25–26. ISBN978-1-903630-50-1. OCLC1286799595.
^Lewis, Jeffrey (August 18, 2021). "Russia Resumes Burevestnik Testing". Arms Control Wonk. Retrieved February 25, 2024. The "Skyfall" is one of a number of new Russian strategic weapons designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses. Using a nuclear reactor would, in principle, give the cruise missile unlimited range to fly under and around US missile defense radars and interceptors.
