A new report from two MIT researchers attempts to dig into the specifics of a shadowy Russian weapons program they call Burevestnik, and which NATO refers to as Skyfall. The report shows that the missile’s nuclear engine offers near-unlimited range—and that’s not even the worst part.
The report does say that the technology is likely still too shaky to be credibly used, though, in many ways, its problems become a non-issue when you’ve already decided to launch a nuclear weapon. Skyfall could be loaded with a conventional bomb, but it’s questionable why that would be worth the effort.
Nuclear-powered missiles have been a research project since the 1960s, with NASA launching Project Pluto and the US military pursuing far more. Based on what we know, America has done far more work on this topic than Russia, though in all likelihood, the US does not have any such projects ongoing today.
A prototype of a Tory-II nuclear engine, from Project Pluto.
Credit: US Department of Energy
Now, when we’re talking about NASA, we need to remember that a nuclear engine is different than a nuclear-powered electric engine. We’ve reported on NASA’s wish to use nuclear reactors in space, but these only provide electricity for electric ion thrusters; a true nuclear engine uses the heat of a nuclear reaction to create direct thrust.
This has the upside of allowing a far greater maximum range for the missile, and the downside of…virtually everything else about the idea. There’s a reason that both Americans and the Soviets abandoned the idea in favor of rocket-fueled ICBMs: They’re cheaper and more reliable, present fewer ancillary dangers, and have pretty darn good range.
Russia reportedly revived this idea in the 2010s, with Burevestnik. It’s thought to be motivated by a wish to threaten a nuclear strike that would be nigh-impossible to defend against, taking missile technology to its logical conclusion by allowing a weapon to launch from—and hit—anywhere in the world.
Its range would be so great that it could take totally unconventional paths to its target, wending its way through defensive holes that would usually require a piloted vehicle. It could also be launched far in advance of an actual strike date, trusted to circle and maneuver to keep themselves safe for days, or potentially even weeks.
The Skyfall missile is bigger than most conventional missiles, with capabilities to match.
Credit: Jake J. Hecla and R. Scott Kemp
The MIT researchers conclude that the missile is subsonic, which rules out the possibility that it uses a ramjet design like the one developed at Project Pluto, since ramjets don’t operate effectively unless air is moving through them at supersonic speeds. Instead, it likely uses an air-breathing turbojet design, which will make it much more maneuverable than a supersonic variant but will also rule out any trajectories that pass through the upper atmosphere.
At cruising, the report estimates a peak power of 15MWth (megawatts of thermal power), which isn’t much by rocket standards. Burevestnik likely requires a separate “kicker” to actually launch, slowly spooling up the nuclear turbojet as it flies. Eventual top speeds would be reasonable, but it would take a while to accelerate that far.
The real problem with this design is that it spews the reactor’s fission products out the back of the missile as it goes. Large quantities of radioactive isotopes would be released, including argon, krypton, and carbon. It would be even worse over very long mission times, as the combination of heat and drag would corrode the engine and lead to the release of even more radioactivity.
The only real images of the Skyfall missile have been released intentionally blurry.
Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense
The researchers make it clear that Burevestnik would be a complete environmental disaster and note that the missile would be almost as dangerous for its crews. It’s even believed that a fatal nuclear accident in 2019 was a failed attempt to salvage one of these missile prototypes from the bottom of the sea.
There currently seems to be a lot of focus on Russian nuclear research, with the implication that nuclear war is just around the corner. The US government also recently dropped a reference to “a new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered, undersea autonomous torpedo.” Thankfully, all such technologies seem very much in the development phase and are potentially more of a threat than anything else (for now).
As the report says, the “logic appears to be psychological. Burevestnik descends from a long line of ‘prestige weapons,’ including Avangard and Poseidon. These systems are build [sic] on the legacy of psychological deterrence going back to Tsar Bomba. Because they provide genuinely novel effects, they can instill fear in the adversary—even if those capabilities are not decisive or practical.”
Here’s hoping that’s true, since if this report’s insights are correct, the Skyfall missile can cause damage through launch alone, even if it never strikes a target.
