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

Is AI a black box?

In the black box model, the only thing that means is the thing that the outside observer sees. That thing was the primary element in early 20th-century psychology. And the most modern observation tools are changing that thing. But in the early 20th century the brains were totally unknown. There was no change to research living brains. When EEG systems developed researchers could investigate the brain shell electricity. 

But things like PET and MEG scanners open new ways to see how brains work. But if we think of brain research as the box model, the early 20th-century models were black box models. The modern scanners brought the glass box or white box model to brain research. And the AI brought the grey box to neurology. That means the brain-computer interfaces, BCI, where researchers use brain electricity to control computers and soon read thoughts. 

When developers use the black box method to test programs they simply test that the program works. When we make the black box model for psychological learning methods, we can think about some 9-year-old child. That child can read almost everything and we can put that person to read even complicated scientific articles. The child can read those words but that person doesn’t understand what those things mean. The black box means that the actor can make many things, but the action is the only thing that the outside observer sees. That means that black box applications are not as safe as they could be. 

And most of the computer applications are black boxes for users. A regular user sees the interface and that’s enough.  In the white box or glass box application test, the tester tests the code. In the grey box, the test unit tests the functionality and code in the case of programming. The fact is that the AIs that we see are black-box applications. We see only the command line and the answer or thing that the AI makes. We don’t actually know even if the images and texts that we order the AI to make are made by some humans. 

In the case of the black box, the only thing that matters is that the system gives the right answer. The way the system makes that answer doesn’t matter. The only thing that the user sees means something. 

Is AI a black box? The idea of AI intelligence is something that is handled very little. We know that AI can solve many problems independently, but AI doesn’t know what it really makes. The AI can know many things, but it cannot have deep knowledge about those things. The model is taken from the black box psychology. In black box psychology, the key element is that the behavior that an outsider observer sees is something that we can accept. That means the AI just mimics human intelligence. The black box model means that the AI can give the right answers for some mathematical problems. 

But the same AI cannot make anything else. That is the idea of the black box. In the black box model, the thing that the AI gives the right answer is enough. The AI must do only things that the operator orders. So when the operator asks about the uranium enrichments and something like that the AI must give the answer. It must not make its own connections to things like weapon development. There can be things that deny the AI to give orders that can cause damage to operators or their environment. But those orders are in the AI’s code. The AI doesn't make those orders itself. 

The AI is sliding to the grey box application. For making autonomous learning the AI must have access to its source code. And the second thing is that the AI must have the ability to test the code. The AI can involve three parts. The system that creates the code. Another system that tests and accepts the code. And the last system that keeps the backup copy of the AI source code. A backup is needed for the errors. The system should have the ability to reject the code that is not functional.