Satellite photos show likely launch site for Russia's new nuclear-powered missile

Two U.S. researchers say they have identified the probable deployment site inRussiaof the 9M730 Burevestnik, a newnuclear-powered,nuclear-armed cruise missile touted by President Vladimir Putin as "invincible."

Putin hassaidthe weapon dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO has an almost unlimited range and can evade U.S. missile defences. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik's strategic value, saying it will not add capabilities that Moscow does not already have and risks a radiation-spewing mishap.

Using images taken on July 26 by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite firm, the two researchers identified a construction project abutting anuclearwarhead storage facility known by two names Vologda-20 and Chebsara as the new missile's potential deployment site. The facility is 475 kilometresnorth of Moscow.

Reuters wasthe first to report this development.

Decker Eveleth, an analyst with the CNA research and analysis organization, found the satellite imagery and identified what he assessed are nine horizontal launch pads under construction. They are located in three groups inside high berms to shield them from attack or to prevent an accidental blast in one from detonating missiles in the others, he said.

The berms are linked by roads to what Eveleth concluded are likely buildings where the missiles and their components would be serviced, and to the existing complex of fivenuclearwarhead storage bunkers.

The site is "for a large, fixed missile system, and the only large, fixed missile system that they're [Russia]currently developing is the Skyfall," Evelethsaid.

Russia's Ministry of defence and embassy in Washington did not respond to a request to comment on his assessment, Burevestnik's strategic value, its test record and the risks it poses.

A Kremlin spokespersonsaid these were questions for the DefenceMinistry and declined further comment.

The U.S. State Department, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. air force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center declined to comment.

The identification of the missile's probable launch site suggests thatRussiais proceeding with its deployment after a series of tests in recent years marred by problems, said Eveleth and the second researcher, Jeffery Lewis, of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Lewis agreed with Eveleth's assessment after reviewing the imagery at his request. The imagery "suggests something very unique, very different. And obviously, we know thatRussiais developing thisnuclear-powered missile," he said.

Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, who also studied the Vologda imagery at Eveleth's request, said that it appears to show launch pads and other features "possibly" related to Burevestnik. But he said he could not make a definitive assessment because Moscow does not typically place missile launchers next tonuclearwarhead storage.

Eveleth, Lewis, Kristensen and three other experts said Moscow's normal practice has been stockpilingnuclearpayloads for land-based missiles far from launch sites except for those on its deployed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force.

But deploying the Burevestnik at Vologda would allow theRussian military to stockpile thenuclear-armed missiles in its bunkers, making them available to launch quickly, Lewis and Evelethsaid.

Russia's deputy foreign affairs minister, Sergei Ryabkov, saidRussiawill make changes to its guidelineson the use ofnuclearweapons in response to what it regards as Western escalation in the war in Ukraine, state news agency TASS reported on Sunday.

Missile has weak testing record

A 2020 report by the U.S. air force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center said that ifRussiasuccessfully brought the Burevestnik into service, it would give Moscow a "unique weapon with intercontinental-range capability."

But the weapon's checkered past and design limitations raised doubts among eight experts interviewed by Reuters about whether its deployment would change thenuclearstakes for the West and otherRussian foes.

The Burevestnik has a poor test record of at least 13 known tests, with only two partial successes, since 2016, according to theNuclearThreat Initiative, an advocacy group focused on reducingnuclear, biological and emergent technology risks.

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The setbacks include a 2019 blast during the botched recovery of an unshieldednuclearreactor allowed to "smoulder" on the White Sea floor for a year following a prototype crash, according to U.S. State Departmentreports.

Russia's statenuclearagency, Rosatom,saidfive staff members died during the testing of a rocket on Aug. 8. Putin presented their widows with top state awards, saying the weapon they were developing was without equal in the world, without naming the Burevestnik.

Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based expert onRussia'snuclearforces, along with Lewis, Eveleth, and other experts, said it will not add capabilities that Moscow'snuclearforces do not already have, including the ability to overwhelm U.S. missile defences.

Moreover, itsnuclear-powered engine threatens to disgorge radiation along its flight path, and its deployment risks an accident that could contaminate the surrounding region, said Cheryl Rofer, a former U.S.nuclearweapons scientist, and other experts.

"The Skyfall is a uniquely stupid weapon system, a flying Chornobyl that poses more threat toRussiathan it does to other countries," agreed Thomas Countryman, a former top U.S. State Department official with the Arms Control Association, referring to the 1986nuclearplant disaster.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization did not answer questions about how the alliance would respond to the weapon's deployment.

Little publicly is known about the Burevestnik's technical details.

Experts assess that it would be sent aloft by a small solid-fuel rocket to drive air into an engine containing a miniaturenuclearreactor. Superheated and possibly radioactive air would be blasted out, providing forward thrust.

Putinunveiledit in March 2018, saying the missile would be "low flying," with nearly unlimited range, an unpredictable flight path and "invincible" to current and future defences.

Many experts are skeptical of Putin's claims. The Burevestnik, they say, could have a range of some 23,000 kilometrescompared withmore than 17,700 kilometresfor the Sarmat,Russia's newest ICBM while its subsonic speed would make it detectable.

"It's going to be as vulnerable as any cruise missile," Kristensen, of theFederation of American Scientists, said. "The longer it flies, the more vulnerable it becomes because there is more time to track it. I don't understand Putin's motive here."

The Burevestnik's deployment is not banned by New START, the last U.S.-Russian accord limiting strategicnuclearweapon deployments, which expires in February 2026.

A provision allows Washington to request negotiations with Moscow on bringing the Burevestnik under the caps, but a State Department spokesperson said no such talks had been sought.

Citing the ongoing war in Ukraine,Russiahas spurned U.S. calls for unconditional talks on replacing New START, stoking fears of an all-outnucleararms race when it expires.

Geneva-based expert Podvig said Moscow might use the missile as a bargaining chip if talks ever resume.

He called the Burevestnik a "political weapon" that Putin used to bolster his strongman image before his 2018 re-election and to telegraph to Washington that it cannot dismiss his concerns over U.S. missile defences and other issues.