“This is a bad development,” Lewis said. “It’s just another science fiction weapon that will be destabilizing and difficult to address in arms control.”
Charging
When Putin first revealed that Russia was working on the weapon in his 2018 state of the nation address, he claimed it would have unlimited range, allowing it to circle the globe undetected by missile defense systems.
Many observers argue that such a missile could be difficult to handle and pose an environmental threat. The United States and the then-Soviet Union worked on nuclear-powered missiles during the Cold War, but ultimately shelved the projects as too dangerous.
The Burevestnik reportedly suffered an explosion in August 2019 during tests at a navy firing range in the White Sea in northwestern Russia, killing at least five nuclear engineers and two service members and causing a brief spike in radioactivity that fueled fears in a nearby city.
Russian officials never identified the weapon involved, but the United States said it was the Burevestnik.
Charging
Kirill Dmitriev, a senior Putin adviser who was in the United States when the latest video emerged, said his delegation informed their American colleagues about the “successful tests” of the Burevestnik, which he said was an “absolutely new class” of weapon.
Last week, Putin led exercises by Russia’s strategic nuclear forces that included missile launch practices. The exercise came as a planned summit on Ukraine with US President Donald Trump was put on hold.
The Kremlin said the drills involved all sides of Moscow’s nuclear triad, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that were test-launched from launch facilities in northwest Russia and a submarine in the Barents Sea.
The exercises also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers that fired long-range cruise missiles and tested the abilities of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Burevestnik has been tested at three sites in western Russia: Kapustin Yar, Nenoksa and Pankovo, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The U.S. intelligence community first identified the project at the Kapustin Yar missile range, and its development had likely been underway for more than a decade, the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank said.
Despite the deadly accident and numerous test failures, Moscow appears to be continuing with the program. It remains to be seen whether the project is driven by a desire to overcome what have so far been considerable technical difficulties and advance development, or rather to provide a substantial bargaining chip in any future arms control discussions.
