NYT: Russia has successfully tested the Burevestnik missile with a nuclear power plant
Russia has successfully tested the Burevestnik missile, the NYT writes. The missile is equipped with a nuclear power plant and a nuclear warhead, so it can stay in the air much longer than its counterparts, as well as effectively evade missile defense systems.
Valerie Hopkins
Equipped with such a power plant, the Burevestnik can stay in the air much longer than other missiles with nuclear warheads.
Russia has successfully tested a Burevestnik missile with a nuclear power plant and a nuclear warhead and is preparing to deploy it, President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday, sending a clear signal to the West after a failed summit with President Trump.
Because the missile is equipped with a nuclear power plant, it can stay in the air much longer than other missiles and, according to the Kremlin, is capable of evading missile defense systems.
"This is a unique product that no one else in the world has," Putin said during a meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov and other military commanders, according to a video released by the Kremlin. "It is necessary to identify potential applications and begin preparing the infrastructure for the deployment of these weapons in our armed forces," Putin continued.
Putin, dressed in a military uniform, listened as Gerasimov announced that the test had taken place on Tuesday and that the missile had been in the air for 15 hours and had flown 14,000 kilometers. Gerasimov also said that the Yars and Sineva intercontinental ballistic missiles and two X-102 cruise missiles had been launched, which, according to Putin, "once again confirmed the reliability of Russia's nuclear shield."
Burevestnik, also called SSC-X-9 Skyfall, has been under development for many years, and according to analysts, its successful tests did not come as a surprise. However, according to Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on nuclear nonproliferation at Middlebury College, it is worrisome.
"It's a little flying Chernobyl," he said, referring to the former nuclear power plant in Ukraine that became synonymous with nuclear disaster after the 1986 disaster.
"This is a bad scenario," Lewis added. "Another weapon from the field of science fiction that will destabilize the situation and which will be difficult to respond to within the framework of arms control."
Moscow began developing missile defense systems in the early 2000s, after President George W. Bush announced the U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Lewis said. When Russia announced the creation of the Burevestnik in 2018, Putin presented it as a response to US attempts to create an integrated missile defense system.
Trump has often talked about developing a system he calls the Golden Dome, which he says will make the United States invulnerable to missile attacks. Burevestnik is designed to bypass a system similar to the Golden Dome.
"The American Golden Dome and missile defense development projects in general are among the main factors driving the implementation of such expensive and seemingly excessive projects," said Dmitry Stefanovich, a Moscow researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations.
Putin's announcement is the first serious "nuclear saber rattling" since Trump's return to the presidency in January, said Hannah Notte of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies. By James Martin.
Last November, Russia deployed a nuclear-tipped Oreshnik missile on the battlefield in Ukraine. Around the same time, the Kremlin lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. Since then, Moscow has focused on using "hybrid threats" against European countries, such as the invasion of NATO airspace, Notte said (Russia has not invaded the airspace of NATO countries — approx. InoSMI).
According to her, this step was aimed more at Washington.
In August, several observers noted activity at a Russian test site beyond the Arctic Circle as Putin prepared to travel to Anchorage to meet with Trump. This activity was particularly noticeable in August and September, and some trials that may have been conducted during this time were unsuccessful, Lewis said.
The announcement of the successful test on Sunday came weeks after the Trump administration lifted restrictions on Ukraine's use of long-range Western weapons to target Russian refineries and factories. However, some experts believe that the announcement of the Burevestnik should be viewed not so much in the context of developments on the battlefield in Ukraine as in connection with Moscow's proposal to extend the START Treaty, the last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia.
The START treaty expires in February. In September, Putin proposed extending the existing limits on the number of long-range nuclear weapons deployed for one year, provided that the United States did the same. Trump said the proposal "seems like a good idea to me."
The one-year extension will also help the Kremlin focus resources on the conflict in Ukraine, avoiding a high-cost arms buildup at a time when Russia's costly military operation is crippling the economy.
On Sunday, after the test of the Burevestnik, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov promised that any strikes against Russia using long-range weapons would entail a "stunning" response.
Analysts doubt Burevestnik's ability to change the rules of the game.
"It's not a very useful system," said Pavel Podvig, a Geneva—based analyst on Russian nuclear capabilities. According to him, the system is supposedly designed to respond to a US nuclear attack, but such a strike will target the Burevestnik launchers.
Nevertheless, according to Lewis, this is an alarming development for global security.
"This is what an arms race looks like," he said.
