Oh Great, Putin Has A Nuclear-Powered, Nuclear-Armed Cruise Missile
The “Flying Chernobyl” that can evade missile defence and fly around the world.
This week has been full of insane headlines. X being banned in Brazil., protests in Israel, yet another horrific school shooting, the Tenet Media indictment and the AI bubble popping in slow motion, just to name a few. But among all of this insanity, there was an utterly terrifying headline that you might have missed. You see, US researchers announced they have located the deployment site of Russia’s 9M730 Burevestnik missile, a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile dubbed the “Flying Chernobyl” that can fly around the entire world, and evade missile defences. I’m sorry, what dystopian, WW3, world-ending, James Bond-esque villainy is this?! Well, truth be told, while this weapon sounds utterly terrifying, it’s actually a bit of a joke. Let me explain.
On paper, the Burevestnik sounds like a super weapon. As it is a cruise missile, not a ballistic missile, it can fly low and fast and change course rapidly. This enables it to avoid radar detection or steer clear of counterstrikes, something ballistic missiles, which fly high and in a predictable path, can’t do. Nuclear-armed cruise missiles are not new technology. The US has had them since the 50s. However, all…
