Russia Skyfall Nuclear-Powered Cruise Missile Is Tested

Table Of Content

• Italy will continue to stand by Ukraine, but is mindful of waning public support, prime minister says
• Test flights
• Steve Bannon Fires Four-Word Rant at Ukraine Aid Supporters
• Zelensky calls for more air defenses following "inhuman terrorist attack" in Kupiansk
• Russian strike on fallen soldier's wake is one of deadliest attacks of the war, Ukraine says
• 730 Burevestnik
• Russia’s Nuclear-Powered Cruise Missile Is a Danger to America—And Moscow

These included the much-touted 'Doomsday device' Poseidon, a nuclear-powered, nuclear-tipped torpedo. Russia previously conducted 13 known tests of the subsonic nuclear-powered cruise missile between 2017 and 2019, per The New York Times, and all of the tests are believed to have been unsuccessful, though there were some partial achievements. He said the creation of the new weapons has made NATO's U.S.-led missile defense "useless," and means an effective end to what he described as Western efforts to stymie Russia's development. The announcement comes as Putin is set to easily win another six-year presidential term in the March 18 election. “It is a low-flying stealth missile carrying a nuclear warhead, with almost unlimited range, unpredictable trajectory and ability to bypass interception boundaries,” Putin said then.

Italy will continue to stand by Ukraine, but is mindful of waning public support, prime minister says

Putin Claims Russia Successfully Tested a Nuclear-Powered Missile. - The New York Times

Putin Claims Russia Successfully Tested a Nuclear-Powered Missile..

Posted: Mon, 09 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The Russian leader said that another new weapon called Avangard is an intercontinental hypersonic missile that would fly to targets at a speed 20 times the speed of sound and strike "like a meteorite, like a fireball." Boulègue said he is not sure what the nuclear-powered cruise missile is, but is very sceptical that the Russians have developed something new and truly ground breaking. As far as anyone knows, their most advanced next-generation missile is the RS-28, which the U.S. calls Satan 2.

Test flights

And once the bombs were exhausted, the nuclear-powered missile would…simply keep on going and going like a murderous Energizer Bunny. Explanations coming out of Russia varied amid indications Moscow was covering up a nuclear accident. Later, details emerged about the types of radioactive isotopes that were released in event, leading experts to conclude that a small nuclear reactor exploded. In a tweet, then-President Donald Trump called it the "Skyfall explosion," further indicating the deadly blast was tied to Burevestnik. Beyond struggles with the technology — which is similar to some US efforts that were abandoned decades ago because the concept was, as one arms control expert told Insider, "a technical, strategic, and environmental nightmare" — Russia's work on this weapon has also been deadly. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the latest test of the cruise missile at the Valdai International Discussion Club, Russian state media reported on Thursday.

Steve Bannon Fires Four-Word Rant at Ukraine Aid Supporters

A nuclear ramjet named Tory-IIA was tested successfully for a few seconds on May 14, 1961, at low power. After three more years of development, a lighter Tory-IIC ramjet was then tested in 1964, operating at near to full power for five minutes. Over 300 tons of pressurized air were channeled to simulate high-speed flight conditions necessary for the ramjet to operate.

Zelensky calls for more air defenses following "inhuman terrorist attack" in Kupiansk

According to the latest death toll, the attack wiped out about one fifth of the village, which was home to 330 people. Scenes emerged of emergency workers wading through dense rubble in the aftermath of the attack. He said Ukraine will receive six Hawk systems from Spain and that Germany will work to provide Kyiv with another Patriot system. Zelensky said he believes the Patriot system is "the only system that can withstand such threats and such massacres."

Russian strike on fallen soldier's wake is one of deadliest attacks of the war, Ukraine says

By contrast, advances in radar and missile technology seemed bound to make the SLAM less invulnerable than had been previously supposed. Finally, in July 1964, the military pulled the plug on the $260 million program—equivalent to over $2 billion in 2019 dollars. For example, a separate conventional rocket system would be necessary for the missile to reach the supersonic speeds at which its ramjet motor could function. That, in turn, meant the reactor had to be designed to withstand the heat and stress of those powerful booster rockets. In fact, it’s believed precisely that problem may have resulted in the deadly accident in Russia this August. The huge missile, laden with up to twelve thermonuclear bombs, would proceed to race towards one Soviet city after another, visiting Hiroshima-level human tragedies upon each.

Russia-Ukraine War

But even if the Burevestnik was deployed operationally, "it wouldn't alter the nuclear balance of power," he told Newsweek. "It's intended as a second-strike weapons that is not going to increase Russia's first-strike capability," he added. Unfortunately, in a climate of escalating paranoia and nuclear arms competition, Moscow is not merely devising exotic new nuclear weapons, but resurrecting the demons of our shared Cold War past. Moscow had one somewhat promising test of the Burevestnik, which means "Announcer of the Storm," at the Nyonoksa testing range on Russia's northern coast. It lasted only a little more than two minutes and saw the missile fly just 22 miles before crashing into the sea, where others have wound up. The shortest test, per CNBC, lasted only about four seconds, and the weapon only flew a few miles.

Zelensky told reporters Europe’s “biggest challenge” will be to preserve its “unity," as an emerging wing of leaders in the region voice opposition to sending aid to Ukraine. A Moscow-based institute, the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said that the movement of ships was normal. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) commented that imagery from October 1 and October 3 "reportedly shows that Russian forces recently moved the Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen frigates, three diesel submarines, five landing ships, and several small missile ships" to Novorossiysk. As many as a dozen ships, including frigates, landing ships and submarines now appear to be moored at Novorossiysk, according to satellite imagery over the past few weeks. CNN can confirm that some of the ships did come from Sevastopol, the home port of Black Sea Fleet, but additional satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows a number of military vessels remain in that port. "Now Europe is following the developments in America – the growing political storm. Europe has its own potential for strength, and its global role, which should be as powerful as possible in all key issues that are important for Europe," he said.

Russia’s Nuclear-Powered Cruise Missile Is a Danger to America—And Moscow

The resulting Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile (SLAM) was powered by a small reactor codenamed “Pluto,” to be developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. That’s because the United States has tried it before sixty years earlier—and even with the fast-and-loose safety culture of the Cold War 1960s, the poison-spewing radioactive mega missile it began developing was considered too dangerous to even properly flight test. A CNBC report on US intelligence later revealed that the explosion didn't occur during a test but rather during a recovery operation.

Known as Project Pluto, the program was working toward a weapons system named the Supersonic Low Altitude Missile (SLAM). SLAM was supposed to fly at Mach 3.5 at low altitude and eject a payload of H-bombs over enemy targets over the course of a long flight. But Project Pluto was killed off, doomed by the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and the fact that there was no way to practically test it without spewing radiation everywhere. On January 29, Russia conducted the first test launch of its nuclear-powered 9M730 Burevestnik (SSC-X-9 “SKYFALL”) cruise missile in almost a year at the Kapustin Yar missile test range, near the western Kazakhstan border. The Burevestnik is reported to have a nuclear reactor powering its engine, a feature that has yet to be fielded by any country. However, U.S. military intelligence sources indicate that the missile is still in developmental stages and that this was only a partially successful test, with only one other past test achieving moderate success.

He said that another weapons system, called Kinzhal, already has been deployed in Russia's Southern Military District – a hypersonic missile carried by an aircraft that can strike targets 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) away. The Russian leader emphasized that the development of new weapons that have no equivalent in the West came in response to the U.S. withdrawal from a Cold war-era treaty banning missile defenses and U.S. efforts to develop a . Russia previously conducted 13 known tests between 2017 and 2019, all of which were unsuccessful, according to a report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit group focused on arms control. A missile launched in 2019 crashed and eventually exploded during a recovery attempt, killing seven people, according to U.S. officials. Russia has successfully tested a new generation of nuclear-powered cruise missile, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. When Putin first revealed that Russia was working on the weapon in his 2018 state-of-the-nation address, he claimed it would have an unlimited range, allowing it to circle the globe undetected by missile defense systems.

Five scientists were killed in an explosion in northern Russia in August 2019, which was reportedly triggered during efforts to recover a Burevestnik from the ocean floor. Satellite imagery and aviation data analysis indicated movement around an Arctic Russian base that was "consistent with preparations" made in 2017 and 2018 for tests of the 9M730 Burevestnik cruise missile, The New York Times reported on Monday. U.S. surveillance aircraft have also flown around the area of the test site in the past few weeks. In early August 2019, an explosion at the Nyonoksa test range killed multiple people, including a handful of Russian engineers, and triggered a spike in radiation levels in nearby towns. Early on, given the location, there was speculation that the incident was related to a failed test of the Russian Burevestnik missile, which NATO refers to as SSC-X-9 Skyfall, though information was limited. Putin said the high-speed underwater drone also has an "intercontinental" range and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could target both aircraft carriers and coastal facilities.