Is Russia's invincible, "intercontinental" missile as real as rumored?

With the US discovering a place Russia could use to launch nuclear-tipped missiles, the doubts surrounding Burevestnik are gradually being clarified.

Satellite image of the location where Russia is believed to deploy nuclear-tipped missiles. (Source: Reuters)

In recent days, using satellite images taken on July 26 by Planet Labs, two American researchers have identified a construction project adjacent to a nuclear warhead storage facility known by two names: Vologda-20 and Chebsara.

Two researchers believe that this could be the location that Russia could use to deploy the 9M370 Burevestnik nuclear-tipped cruise missile.

Decker Eveleth, an expert with the research and analysis organization CNA, found satellite imagery that identified what he assessed as nine launch pads under construction.

They are arranged in three groups inside perimeter walls to protect them from attack or to prevent an accidental explosion in one group from detonating missiles in the others, he said.

The perimeter walls are connected by road corridors to missile maintenance buildings and related components, as well as to a complex of five bunkers storing nuclear warheads.

According to Mr. Eveleth, the site is "for a large, fixed missile system and the only large, fixed missile system that Russia is developing - Skyfall (Burevestnik missile in NATO terms)".

Russia as well as US agencies including the State Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Intelligence Agency (CIA), and US Air Force Space Intelligence Center have not commented.

Russian President Putin once declared that the Burevestnik missile has a virtually unlimited range and can evade US missile defense systems.

A 2020 report by the US Air Force's Space Intelligence Center said that if Russia successfully fielded the Burevestnik, it would give Moscow "a weapon capable of intercontinental strike."

The technical details of Burevestnik are still secret. Experts believe that the warhead will be launched by a solid-fuel rocket, which will inject air into an engine with a miniature nuclear reactor. Superheated and possibly radioactive air will be blown out, providing thrust for the missile.

Experts say Burevestnik could have a range of around 23,000km – compared with 17,700km for Sarmat, Russia's latest ICBM – although its subsonic speed would make it easy to detect.

The deployment of Burevestnik is not prohibited by New START, the latest strategic nuclear arms limitation treaty between the US and Russia, which expires in February 2026.

On September 1, TASS reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow will change its nuclear weapons guidelines in response to what it sees as the West's escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/ten-lua-bat-kha-chien-bai-xuyen-luc-dia-cua-nga-co-that-nhu-loi-don-284841.html