Twice within the past week, Vladimir Putin has announced successful tests of new, nuclear-powered weapons, with the apparent intention of frightening western adversaries.
On Sunday, Putin and his chief of staff, Gen Valery Gerasimov, said Russia had tested a low-flying, nuclear powered and potentially nuclear armed cruise missile called Burevestnik (Sea Petrel or storm herald).
Gerasimov said the missile flew 14,000km (8,700 miles) in 15 hours. The Burevestnik’s engine is a small, nuclear fission reactor, giving it what Russia claims is virtually unlimited range. Western experts call it a “flying Chernobyl” because it is thought to trail radioactive exhaust. When it comes down, as it eventually must, its radioactive fuel is dispersed, making it – in the worst case scenario – de facto a dirty bomb.
On Wednesday, Putin announced that Russia has tested a nuclear-powered underwater drone called Poseidon. In May 2022, Russian state television broadcast a simulation of the detonation of a Poseidon missile off the coast of Donegal.
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