U.S. researchers have reportedly identified, for the first time, a site believed to be the deployment location for Russia’s new nuclear-powered cruise missile, the 9M370 Burevestnik.
On Monday, Reuters reported that two U.S. researchers had identified a potential deployment site for the Burevestnik missile.
The researchers used satellite images taken by commercial satellite company Planet Labs on July 26 to identify a construction site near a warhead storage facility known as “Vologda-20” or “Chebsara” as a potential deployment location for the new missile. This site is located 475 kilometers (295 miles) north of Moscow.
Decker Eveleth, a Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) researcher, reported that nine horizontal launchers are under construction at the site. He explained that these launchers are arranged in three groups within high cliffs to protect them from attacks and to prevent a chain reaction in case one launcher accidentally explodes.
Eveleth concluded that these barriers are connected to buildings where the missiles and their components are likely to be deployed and to the existing five nuclear warhead storage facilities.
He stated, “This site is intended for large fixed missile systems, and the only large fixed missile system currently being developed by Russia is the Skyfall.” The SSC-X-9 Skyfall is the NATO designation for the Burevestnik.
Eveleth and Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, suggested that the deployment of cruise missiles is progressing after a series of failed test launches in recent years.
Four other experts explained that, aside from the payloads on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), it is common practice for Russia to store nuclear payloads for ground-based missiles far from the launch sites.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the 9M370 Burevestnik as “invincible.” Last October, President Putin announced that the Burevestnik had successfully completed a test launch. He first mentioned the weapon during a state address in March 2018, describing it as a new weapon that can reach anywhere worldwide, ensuring strategic balance.
However, some experts question Burevestnik’s strategic value. According to Reuters, eight experts believe the missile’s past failures and design limitations make it unlikely to reset nuclear competition with the West and other nations.
According to a Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) report, Russia conducted 13 test launches in 2017 and 2018, of which only two were partially successful.
The U.S. State Department reported that a Burevestnik prototype crashed in 2019, and during recovery efforts, an explosion occurred that killed seven people. A year later, an unshielded reactor was left emitting smoke in the White Sea in northwestern Russia.
Thomas Countryman, former acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, criticized the missile system, comparing it to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine) in 1986. He called Skyfall a “very foolish weapon system” that poses a greater threat to Russia than to any other country, likening it to a “flying Chernobyl.”
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