Index – Abroad – Russia built the Flying Chernobyl

The site is located at a nuclear warhead storage facility, reportedly known as Vologda-20, and is roughly 600 kilometers from Russia’s borders with Finland and Estonia. It contains nine fixed launch sites, flanked by missile handling facilities and nuclear warhead storage bunkers. Since the launchers, missiles and warheads are all in the same location, it is likely that the Burevesztnyik (Stormbird) will be a stand-by missile, ready to launch at a moment’s notice.

There has been a lot of buzz around Burevestnyk: US officials have condemned Russia’s development of “radiation-spewing, nuclear-powered cruise missiles” and called the system a “Flying Chernobyl”. Unlike conventional cruise missiles, which are powered by jet engines, the Burevestnyik uses an unshielded nuclear reactor. As a result, it can fly for an almost unlimited distance – at least in theory.

The Burevesztnyik would be the first missile of this type to actually be deployed. The United States explored the concept of nuclear-powered rockets in the 1950s and 1960s as part of Project Pluto, but the project was halted due to concerns that the system would pose a threat to the US population. These concerns were confirmed in 2019, when a Burevestnik exploded during a test and killed several Russian missile researchers – Decker Eveleth, a staff member of the Washington-based non-profit research and analysis organization CNA, which uses satellite images to study the situation of foreign nuclear weapons, writes in the columns of Foreign Policy .

The Burevestnyk’s propulsion system and virtually unlimited range could allow Russia to use the missile in radically new ways. The UK’s head of military intelligence, General James Hockenhull, told reporters in 2020 that Moscow was testing a nuclear-powered cruise missile system with “global reach and the ability to strike from unexpected directions” and “nearly unlimited stay time.” ” means the missile can fly around a designated target for a long time before attacking, potentially even bypassing the ground.

It raised concerns that Russia could launch Burevestnik missiles in a crisis situation, which could then cruise near US and NATO targets while waiting for the appropriate orders. This would allow Moscow to strike immediately after giving the order to attack, significantly reducing the time NATO can spend responding to Russian aggression. Some analysts also speculate that Russia could fly the Burevestniks over European territory as a signal before turning them back to Russia, potentially intimidating NATO allies into backing down and giving in to Russian demands.

Limited capabilities

However, Russia is unlikely to use the new missile in this way, as two factors limit its capabilities and possible uses: range and visibility.

Despite the claims of the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to which the range of the missile is practically unlimited, flying long distances or circling around a potential target for a long time has significant costs. Missiles can usually determine their position by communicating with satellites, but satellite signals can be easily jammed or spoofed. In order for the missile to operate without relying on satellites, it is also equipped with an inertial navigation system, which identifies the missile’s position through the process of dead centering. With the help of mechanical accelerometers and gyroscopes, the rocket can determine its position by precisely recording the speed and direction as well as the length of the flight.

Over time, however, small errors in the missile’s guidance system compound, much like the ever-increasing inaccuracy of a mechanical watch. Thus, the long-term flight of the missile would pose a great risk, as it would deviate from its path and not hit its target.

Russia could try to remotely control its missiles, but the limited range of Russian communication systems – along with the problem of the curvature of the earth – would drastically reduce the area where Russia would be able to do this. It is unlikely that Russia would be able to send missiles far away from the country while reliably communicating with them. If Russia were to eventually solve the remote control, the missiles would still be vulnerable to electronic warfare.

However, this does not mean that the increased range of the Burevesztnyik cannot be used. Cruise missiles are effectively “disposable aircraft”; like airplanes, their range is determined by fuel efficiency factors. The height at which the missile flies is an important compromise between range and detectability. The higher a conventional jet rocket flies, the more fuel efficient it becomes; since the air is rarer, there is less air resistance. However, cruise missiles flying at higher altitudes are also easier to detect by radars. Lowering the altitude, on the other hand, makes it easier for missiles to avoid detection, but the denser air requires the jet engines to burn more fuel, significantly shortening the missiles’ range. The great advantage of Burevestnyik’s nuclear propulsion is that there is no need to make compromises between fuel efficiency and detectability.

A uniquely stupid weapon

But the weapon’s controversial past and design limitations raised doubts among eight experts interviewed by Reuters about whether its deployment would change the nuclear stakes.

According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), an advocacy group focused on reducing nuclear, biological and emerging technology risks, Burevesztnyik has had at least 13 known tests since 2016, with only two partial successes.

Failures include a 2019 explosion during a poorly executed recovery of an unshielded nuclear reactor, which took a year after a prototype crashed they left to “smolder” at the bottom of the White Sea.

Russia’s state nuclear agency, Rosatom, said that five of its employees were killed during the August 8 test of a missile. Putin presented their widows with the highest state awards, saying the weapon they had developed was unparalleled in the world.

In addition, the nuclear engine threatens to emit radiation along its flight path, and its installation is also dangerous because it can contaminate the surrounding region, said Cheryl Rofer, a former US nuclear weapons scientist.

Skyfall is a uniquely stupid weapons system, a Flying Chernobyl, that poses a greater threat to Russia than to other countries

– agreed Thomas Countryman, a former senior official of the US State Department.

Pavel Podvig, an internationally recognized expert on Russian nuclear weapons, called the Burevestniks a “political weapon” used by Putin to maintain his strongman image ahead of his 2018 re-election bid.

To summarize the above, the Burevesztnyik is not a miracle weapon, and the challenges it poses to NATO’s security are neither new nor unmanageable. It may look scary on paper, but the technical infeasibility of its serious use limits the threat. Much of the hype surrounding the missile stems from Russian saber-rattling. In this context, perhaps one of the best things NATO can do is to call this weapon what it is – a terror weapon, not a miracle weapon. So far, at least, Burevesztnyik has only killed its own designers.

(Cover image: Satellite image showing the suspected deployment location of a Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile in Vologda on September 2, 2024. Photo: Planet Labs PBC / Reuters)