Satellite imagery of the probable launch site for a nuclear missile that Vladimir Putin has said was "invincible" suggests Moscow is progressing toward deploying weapons there, an expert on Russia's nuclear forces has told Newsweek.
However, Pavel Podvig said it is too soon to tell whether the discovery by U.S. researchers of the location for the new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise 9M370 Burevestnik missile demonstrated Moscow's increased nuclear weapons capabilities.
"It tells us that the system is apparently getting close to some kind of an operational deployment because it does look like an operational site," Podvig told Newsweek. "It's too early to say that things are actually deployed there, but it appears that it's moving in that direction."
Reuters reported that, through images taken by commercial satellite firm Planet Labs, two American scientists had discovered a construction project abutting a nuclear warhead storage facility known as Vologda-20 and Chebsara, nearly 300 miles north of Moscow.
The Burevestnik, which has NATO code name SSC-X-9 Skyfall, is a nuclear-powered cruise missile and was among a suite of next-generation weapons unveiled by Putin in March 2018 when he boasted of its almost-unlimited range and ability to evade U.S. missile defenses. It is said to have a range of some 15,000 miles, compared with the 11,000 miles for the Sarmat, Russia's newest ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile].
Reuters said that satellite imagery showed nine horizontal launchpads under construction located in three groups inside high raised barriers, or berms, to protect them from any attack accidental blast in the others.
The berms are linked by roads to what are likely buildings where the missiles and their components would be serviced, pointing to a large, fixed missile system for Russia, Reuters reported.
Images posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Radio Free Europe journalist Mark Krutov allegedly taken in 2022 and 2023 purport to showed the construction of the launch site. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
Moscow would typically stockpile nuclear payloads for land-based missiles far from launch sites, apart from those on its deployed ICBM force. Deploying the Burevestnik at Vologda would allow nuclear-armed missiles to be stockpiled in its bunkers, meaning they could be launched quickly, Reuters said.
However, Podvig said that "it is not clear if it would actually add anything significant to Russian capability."
"The system was presented by the Russian president in 2018 as one that could penetrate or could circumvent missile defenses, and to some extent, that's true, because it won't be flying in the vacuum of space, where missile defenses work.
"At the same time, it's not like the regular intercontinental ballistic missiles were much worse in penetrating missile defenses," Podvig said.
"If you imagine the scenario of Russia being under attack, I guess that this site will be among the targets and so I just don't see how this system adds anything significant to Russian capability."
The weapon reportedly has a checkered history in which only two out of 13 tests have been partially successful since 2016, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), cited by Reuters. However, these reports are several years old and the purported site for the Burevestnik suggested that developers are reasonably satisfied with other testing of the weapon, Podvig said.
Experts have also said the Burevestnik's nuclear-powered engine could spread radiation along its flight path, risking the contamination of the surrounding region from where it is launched, although Podvig said that Russian engineers and scientists may have found a way of solving this.
"An important consideration here is that, if the idea is that this weapon will be used in a retaliatory strike, in a nuclear war, the kind of radioactive dust that it may or may not release in the atmosphere would be probably the least of everybody's concerns," he added.
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