It sounds like something ripped straight out of a 1950s pulp sci-fi novel. A missile that doesn't just carry a nuke, but is actually powered by one. It stays in the air for days. Weeks, even. It circles the globe, waiting for a gap in radar before it strikes. This isn't fiction. It’s the Russian nuclear powered cruise missile, known officially as the 9M730 Burevestnik, and NATO calls it the SSC-X-9 Skyfall.
Honestly, the whole concept is terrifying.
Most missiles run out of gas. That’s just physics. You launch a Tomahawk, it has a set range, and then it falls down. But the Burevestnik? It basically uses a miniature nuclear reactor to heat up air and blast it out the back for thrust. In theory, it has "unlimited" range. Vladimir Putin showed off an animation of it back in 2018, and the world kind of rolled its eyes at first. People thought it was vaporware. A bluff. Then things started blowing up in northern Russia, and suddenly, everyone stopped laughing.
The Nasty Physics of a Flying Reactor
How do you actually make a Russian nuclear powered cruise missile fly? You have to understand that this isn't a "clean" technology. It’s essentially a "dirty" engine.
The missile starts its journey with a standard solid-fuel rocket booster. That gets it up to speed. Once it’s moving fast enough, the nuclear thermal engine kicks in. Cold air is sucked into the intake, passed directly over a super-hot nuclear core, and then expanded violently out the nozzle. This creates massive thrust without needing a drop of traditional fuel.
But there’s a catch. A big one.
Because the air is passing directly over the reactor core, it becomes radioactive. The Burevestnik leaves a trail of isotopes behind it wherever it goes. It’s a flying Chernobyl. Experts like Jeffrey Lewis from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies have pointed out that even a "successful" test of this weapon is a minor environmental disaster. It's a weapon of last resort, meant to bypass the incredibly sophisticated missile defense systems the United States has spent billions building in places like Alaska and Romania.
If you can fly around the world and hit San Francisco by coming up from the South Pole, all those North-facing radars become useless. That is the entire point of the project.
The 2019 Nyonoksa Accident
We can't talk about the Russian nuclear powered cruise missile without talking about what happened at the State Central Navy Testing Range near Nyonoksa. On August 8, 2019, an explosion occurred during a liquid-propellant rocket engine test. Or at least, that was the initial story.
Local radiation sensors in Severodvinsk spiked.
Five scientists from Rosatom died. They were buried in lead-lined coffins. Why? Because they weren't just dealing with rocket fuel; they were trying to recover a nuclear source from the bottom of the White Sea. It’s widely believed they were trying to salvage a Burevestnik that had crashed during a previous test. When they tried to bring it up, the reactor went prompt-critical or exploded.
It was a grim reminder that this tech is temperamental. It’s dangerous to the people building it, long before it ever becomes a danger to an enemy.
Why Russia is Obsessed with the Burevestnik
You might wonder why anyone would bother with such a finicky, radioactive mess. The answer lies in the shifting balance of power. For decades, the "Mutual Assured Destruction" (MAD) doctrine kept things stable. We hit them, they hit us, everyone dies.
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But then the U.S. started getting really good at intercepting missiles.
Russia fears that if the U.S. can shoot down their standard ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles), then Russia loses its "second-strike" capability. They need a "vengeance weapon." Something that can loiter in the sky, move unpredictably, and stay low enough to avoid detection.
- It flies at low altitudes, making it hard for satellites to track.
- The range is effectively infinite, allowing for crazy flight paths.
- It serves as a psychological "bogeyman" in diplomatic negotiations.
Russia’s military doctrine under Putin has leaned heavily into these "super weapons." Along with the Poseidon nuclear torpedo and the Kinzhal hypersonic missile, the Russian nuclear powered cruise missile is part of a triad designed to make Western defense systems look obsolete.
The American Failed Version: Project Pluto
The crazy thing is, the U.S. actually tried this first. Back in the 1960s, there was a program called Project Pluto. They built a massive, lead-shielded engine called the Tory-IIA. It worked. It roared with the power of a thousand suns and spat out radioactive fire.
The U.S. eventually scrapped it. Not because it didn't work, but because it was "too provocative." Military leaders realized that if you fly a nuclear-powered ramjet over a country, you're basically nuking them before the warhead even hits. The noise alone would shatter windows and eardrums on the ground. It was deemed a "doomsday" weapon that had no place in a sane military strategy.
Russia, however, has decided to pick up where the U.S. left off. They see it as a necessary evil to counter American hegemony.
Where is the Missile Now?
Current intelligence suggests the 9M730 Burevestnik is still in the testing phase. Satellite imagery from 2023 and 2024 has shown significant activity at the Pankovo test site on the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago. This is the same place where the Soviet Union once detonated the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever tested.
Construction of new launch pads and support buildings indicates that Russia hasn't given up on the project despite the setbacks and the body count.
Is it operational? Probably not in the sense that they have dozens ready to go. But Putin has a habit of declaring things "operational" for political leverage long before the engineers have ironed out the bugs. The technical hurdles are massive. You have to shrink a nuclear reactor down to the size of a trash can while making it light enough to fly. Then you have to shield the electronics from the reactor's own radiation, or the "brain" of the missile will fry itself mid-flight.
Practical Next Steps for Following This Development
If you're interested in the reality of the Russian nuclear powered cruise missile rather than the hype, you need to look at specific data points. Here is how you can stay informed without falling for propaganda:
- Monitor Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT): Follow accounts like The Federation of American Scientists or experts like Hans Kristensen. They analyze satellite imagery of Novaya Zemlya for tell-tale signs of launch preparations.
- Watch for NOTAMs: When Russia tests these missiles, they issue "Notice to Airmen" (NOTAMs) to clear the airspace over the Barents Sea. A sudden, large-scale closure of the sea and air usually means a test is imminent.
- Check Radiation Monitoring Sites: Organizations like the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) have sensors across the globe. If a test goes wrong—or even if it goes right—tiny traces of noble gases like Xenon-133 often show up in the atmosphere.
- Distinguish Between Hypersonic and Nuclear-Powered: Don't get confused by the media. A "hypersonic" missile (like the Zircon) is fast. The Burevestnik (nuclear-powered) is "slow" but has infinite range. They are two very different threats.
The Burevestnik remains a terrifying relic of Cold War-style thinking revived for the 21st century. It represents a move away from precision warfare and back toward the era of "total destruction." Whether it becomes a reliable part of Russia's arsenal or remains a dangerous, radioactive pipe dream is yet to be seen, but the smoke rising from Novaya Zemlya suggests they aren't stopping anytime soon.
Pay attention to the Barents Sea. That's where the future of this tech is being decided.