WASHINGTON – Two U.S. researchers say they have identified the likely deployment location of Russia’s 9M370 Burevestnik, a new nuclear-powered cruise missile that President Vladimir Putin has touted as “invincible.”

Putin has said the weapon – dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO – has a nearly unlimited range and can evade US missile defenses. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik’s strategic value, saying it will not give Moscow any capabilities it does not already have and that there is a risk of a radioactive incident.

Using images taken on July 26 by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite company, the two researchers identified a construction project next to a nuclear warhead storage facility known by two names, Vologda-20 and Chebsara, as a possible deployment site for the new missile. The facility is located 475 kilometers north of Moscow.

Reuters was the first news agency to report on this development.

Decker Eveleth, an analyst at the research and analysis organization CNA, found the satellite images and identified nine horizontal launch pads that he said are under construction. They are arranged in three groups within high walls to protect them from attack or to prevent an accidental explosion in one from detonating missiles in the others, he said.

The walls are connected by roads to buildings where, according to Eveleth, the missiles and their components could be serviced, as well as to the existing complex of five storage bunkers for nuclear warheads.

The site is “intended for a large, fixed missile system, and the only large, fixed missile system they (Russia) are currently developing is Skyfall,” Eveleth said.

Neither the Russian Defense Ministry nor the embassy in Washington responded to requests for comment on its assessment, the strategic value of the Burevestnik, its test results and the risks it poses.

A Kremlin spokesman said these were questions for the Defense Ministry and declined further comment.

The U.S. State Department, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Air Force’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center declined to comment.

The identification of the missile’s likely launch site suggests that Russia is continuing with the deployment after encountering problems with a series of tests in recent years, said Eveleth and the second researcher, Jeffery Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey.

Lewis agreed with Eveleth’s assessment after reviewing the images at his request. The images “point to something very unique, very different. And of course we know that Russia is developing this nuclear-powered missile,” he said.

Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, who also examined the Vologda images at Eveleth’s request, said that they appeared to see launch pads and other objects “possibly” linked to Burevestnik. However, he could not make a definitive assessment because Moscow does not normally place missile launch pads next to nuclear warhead storage facilities.

Eveleth, Lewis, Kristensen and three other experts said Moscow’s common practice is to stockpile nuclear warheads for land-based missiles far from their launch bases – with the exception of those for its deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

But stationing the Burevestnik in Vologda would allow the Russian military to store nuclear-armed missiles in its bunkers and make them ready for launch quickly, say Lewis and Eveleth.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia would change its policy on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what he saw as the Western escalation of the war in Ukraine, state news agency TASS reported on Sunday.

BAD TEST REPORTS

A 2020 report by the U.S. Air Force’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center states that if Russia successfully puts the Burevestnik into service, it would have a “unique weapon with intercontinental range.”

But the weapon’s troubled history and design limitations raised doubts among eight experts interviewed by Reuters about whether its deployment would change the nuclear situation for the West and other enemies of Russia.

According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), an advocacy group working to reduce nuclear, biological and emerging technology risks, the Burevestnik has a poor test record of at least 13 known tests since 2016, with only two partial successes.

Setbacks include an explosion in 2019 during the botched recovery of an unprotected nuclear reactor that was allowed to “smolder” on the floor of the White Sea for a year after a prototype crashed, according to U.S. State Department reports, opens new tab.

The Russian nuclear agency Rosatom said five employees were killed in a missile test on August 8. Putin awarded the widows of the two with the highest state awards and said the weapon they had developed was unprecedented in the world. However, he did not mention the Burevestnik by name.

Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based expert on Russia’s nuclear forces, as well as Lewis, Eveleth and other experts said it would not add any capabilities that Moscow’s nuclear forces did not already have, including the ability to overcome U.S. missile defenses.

In addition, there is a risk that its nuclear-powered engine could emit radioactive radiation along its flight path, and its use poses the risk of an accident that could contaminate the surrounding region, said former U.S. nuclear weapons researcher Cheryl Rofer and other experts.

“Skyfall is a uniquely dumb weapons system, a flying Chernobyl that poses a greater threat to Russia than to other countries,” agreed Thomas Countryman, a former senior U.S. State Department official and member of the Arms Control Association, referring to the 1986 nuclear disaster.

NATO did not respond to questions about the alliance’s reactions to the deployment of this weapon.

Little is publicly known about the technical details of the Burevestnik.

Experts believe the plane will be launched by a small solid-fuel rocket to pump air into an engine that contains a miniature nuclear reactor. Superheated and possibly radioactive air is blown out, providing forward thrust.

Putin unveiled the missile in March 2018, saying it would “fly low,” have virtually unlimited range and an unpredictable trajectory, and be “invincible” to current and future defenses.

Many experts are skeptical about Putin’s claims.

They say the Burevestnik could have a range of around 23,000 kilometers – compared to more than 17,700 kilometers for the Sarmat, Russia’s newest intercontinental ballistic missile – and that it would be detectable due to its subsonic speed.

“It will be as vulnerable as any cruise missile,” Kristensen said. “The longer it flies, the more vulnerable it will be because there will be more time to track it. I don’t understand Putin’s motive here.”

The deployment of the Burevestnik is not prohibited by New START, the last US-Russian agreement limiting the deployment of strategic nuclear weapons, which expires in February 2026.

One provision allows Washington to request negotiations with Moscow on including the Burevestnik in the ceiling, but a U.S. State Department spokesman said no such talks were sought.

Citing the war in Ukraine, Russia rejected US calls for unconditional talks on replacing the New START treaty, fuelling concerns that a full-scale nuclear arms race could ensue once it expires.

Podvig said Moscow could use the missile as a bargaining chip if talks ever resume.

He described the Burevestnik as a “political weapon” that Putin used to burnish his strongman image ahead of his re-election in 2018 and to signal to Washington that it could not ignore his concerns about U.S. missile defense and other issues.