sunnuntai 17. elokuuta 2025

Russia is preparing to test a nuclear-powered cruise missile.

  Russia is preparing to test a nuclear-powered cruise missile. 



Russia is preparing the Novaja Zemlya missile test site for the nuclear-powered 9M730 "Burevestnik" (NATO codename CSS-X-9 “Skyfall”)nuclear-powered cruise missile test. The “Skyfall” missile basically uses similar technology. Which the 1950s’ Project Pluto used. But the technology that "Buresvestnik" uses is more sophisticated. Computers and AI make those systems possible. 

Today, technology is more advanced than in the 1950s. And things like reactor cooling systems are more advanced. Skyfall uses a nuclear reactor. To expand air, which gives the system virtually unlimited operational capacity. The “Skyfall” or “Burevestnik” missile’s nuclear reactor rotates an electric engine that uses blowers and compressors. Launch can happen by using a rocket booster or from a high-speed aircraft. 

The blower makes it possible that the “Buresvestnik” could use regular runways. And it will not need those rocket boosters. Is there a drone version of that missile that can return independently to the base, under development? 

https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/krnd.htm


Artist's view of Bartini A-57. 

The reported range of that nuclear-powered missile is about 20,000 kilometers. The nuclear-powered ramjet engine can give the system hypersonic speed. And that system will be the deadliest tool. That has been developed after the Cold War. The “Skyfall” is the missile that can operate. With things like Fractional Orbital Bombardment systems, FOBS. The nuclear-powered missiles can also operate as so-called sub-orbital FOBS. 

These are weapon versions of  atmospheric satellites. The operational altitudes of those nuclear-powered missiles can be very low or very high altitudes. They can change their altitudes from the surface to high altitude. The power gives the missile the ability. To make an unlimited number of maneuvers. Those nuclear-powered missiles are hard targets for defense. Damage in the nuclear reactor’s shell delivers nuclear waste to the ground. Another thing is that. The “Skyfall” or “Burevestnik” can be a test platform for the new. And more advanced, and more capable systems. 



If that missile operates as it should, the road will be open to the nuclear-powered versions of the Tu-160 “Blackjack” bombers. And maybe there are plans for nuclear-powered space shuttles that can operate in the atmosphere. As well as in orbit, at least at a low Earth orbiter. Those aircraft can accelerate in Earth's atmosphere. And then jump out to space. The nuclear-powered rocket or ramjet engine can use atmospheric air that it expands by using a nuclear reactor. Then the nuclear-powered system jumps out from the atmosphere. And it starts to use the internal propellant. 

The nuclear reactor can use any propellant that it can expand with its heat. That means. The nuclear-powered aircraft or shuttle can theoretically collect and return samples. From the other planets' atmospheres. Those shuttles can also give an ultimate ASAT and strike capacity to the air force that operates them. Roberto Bartini introduced the idea of a nuclear-powered space shuttle.  Or an amphibious space shuttle. That system is based on cancelled A-57.  That nuclear-powered space plane would use water as an operating platform. The system can fill its propellant tanks with water. 

Then the shuttle rises into the air. And then. The system can use air-breathing nuclear engines in atmospheric flight. Then the system can jump outside the atmosphere. And start to use its internal propellant, which can be water. Or hydrogen and oxygen that the reactor expands. The last case requires the internal electrolytic system, but a nuclear reactor can boost the power of a regular rocket engine. 


https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/krnd.htm


https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-appears-ready-test-new-missile-he-prepares-trump-talks-researchers-say-2025-08-13/


https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/russias-new-arms-gives-us-room-pause-missiles-putin


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartini_A-57


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto



Ei kommentteja:

Lähetä kommentti

Russia is preparing to test a nuclear-powered cruise missile.

  Russia is preparing to test a nuclear-powered cruise missile.  Russia is preparing the Novaja Zemlya missile test site for the nuclear-pow...