Russia is about to test a nuclear-powered cruise missile that can, in effect, fly indefinitely, from any direction, under our radar — and the United States is not building anything like it. The Burevestnik has already flown 15 hours and nearly 8,700 miles in a reported test, and it can likely even penetrate the Golden Dome. Yet, instead of racing to match a leap in energy density that Moscow has achieved, many of our own analysts are waving it away. That is dangerous and short-sighted. America needs its own nuclear-powered propulsion program, for deterrence and for parity, and it needs it now.
Burevestnik is a Russian nuclear-powered, potentially nuclear-armed cruise missile with reported near-unlimited range. Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Gen. Valery Gerasimov, said in October that a successful test had taken place. It likely flew circles around the test site rather than in a straight line, which also suggests it can control the angle of attack, yaw, and roll. Now Russia is preparing the Novaya Zemlya site for another set of tests, possibly over the next few weeks.
The missile can fly under the radar, at an altitude of roughly 160 to 330 feet. Coming from many different directions over a long period, it could penetrate the Golden Dome. According to James Hockenhull, the United Kingdom’s former chief of defense intelligence, the Burevestnik is a “sub-sonic nuclear-powered cruise missile system which has global reach and would allow attack from unexpected directions” and would have “a near indefinite loiter time.”
Yet mainstream outlets, including the BBC, the Guardian, NPR, and NBC, as well as the think tanks Jamestown Foundation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, have downplayed it. They are not just wrong; they are burying their (our) heads in the sand and crying “nothing to see here.” This is very dangerous for our country. The Burevestnik is a huge and formidable development.
More than that, it shows that a fission energy density roughly a million times higher than chemical fuel can be put to practical use. We need to do that, too. But we are not.
In June, MIT professors published their analysis, “Modeling the Performance of the Burevestnik Nuclear-Powered Cruise Missile.” Based on the missile’s planform, they assess that it flies at high-subsonic speed. Their aerodynamic and engine-cycle modeling suggests it most likely uses an inline, direct-cycle nuclear turbojet with a turbine-inlet temperature of 1,200–1,600 K (1,700–2,420 F), though they cannot conclusively say whether the cycle is direct or indirect. Given heat-transfer and flight-regime limits, they conclude it is almost certainly not a ramjet. In this configuration, heat would be supplied by a compact reactor with a core diameter of around 50 centimeters.
The same technology could be applied to aircraft, finally giving us global range and even multiple revolutions around the Earth, which has not been possible so far.
As a missile, it can serve as a deterrent, just as intercontinental ballistic missiles have, which one can argue is why there has been no world war since World War II. That means we must have our own equivalent, or a somewhat superior one, for deterrence, at least for some time. We need parity. Period. But we are not pursuing it.
As Undersecretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby said in an Aug. 5 speech on nuclear deterrence strategy, “We have to be able to provide strategic deterrence and a capable and credible extended deterrent that’s coupled with our conventional forces as part of an integrated, broader, sensible strategy.”
Russia will likely field a ramjet version in a few years for greater speed. China is also working on the technology and will likely have similar capabilities, perhaps along with a few others.
The missile can be nuclear-armed or carry conventional weapons, with effectively unlimited range. It could circle the Earth a hundred times without refueling, which beats every cruise missile and bomber we have.
TRUMP JUST LOCKED DOWN AMERICA’S FRONT LINE. NOW HE MUST BUILD THE WALL ON ICE
It is being branded a “flying Chernobyl,” but it does not have to be one, and the technology will not stop there. The technology exists to make it safer, and we can develop it ourselves. It could be applied first to military aircraft, giving them game-changing capability, and later perhaps to commercial uses.
But we are not doing it. How dangerous is it to let Russia and China develop this technology while we do not? Extremely. And short-sighted.
Ajay Kothari is president and founder of Astrox Corp., an aerospace R&D company located in suburban Washington. His MS/Ph.D. in aerospace engineering is from the University of Maryland, and his BS in physics is from Bombay University. He is an associate fellow of AIAA and a member of the AIAA Aerospace Power Technical Committee. He has over 40 professional publications and has been PI on more than 35 NASA and DOD contracts.