Russian Skyfall nuclear missile which ‘can fly forever, has an unlimited range and is impossible to shoot down’ could be ready to go to war within six years, US intelligence warns
- US intelligence believe super-weapon will go to war within the next six years
- This comes despite last month’s explosion during missile test in the White Sea
- A sizeable radiation leak caused at least five scientists and technicians to die
A new Russian nuclear-powered missile – capable of flying for days on end as it probes weaknesses in Western defences – is to be ready for deployment earlier than expected.
This is according to a US intelligence assessment which forecasts that the nuclear-powered Burevestnik super weapon will be ready to go to war within the next six years.
The view comes despite last month’s explosion during a missile test of a ‘doomsday’ weapon in the White Sea, leading to a radiation leak in which at least five scientists and technicians died, and others were poisoned.
Some accounts have linked the incident to the Burevestnik, although various experts dispute this, but the Kremlin has refused to reveal the truth.
A new Russian nuclear-powered missile – capable of flying for days on end as it probes weaknesses in Western defences – is to be ready for deployment earlier than expected
Russia has made multiple attempts to test the unlimited range Burevestnik – also known as Skyfall – none of which have been successful, according to the US intelligence report.
Despite these failures, sources cited by CNBC with knowledge of the assessment say that there is now an accelerated timeline for it being ready for war.
It is believed to have been tested once earlier this year and four times between November 2017 and February 2018, on each occasion resulting in a crash.
But Russia boasted earlier this year that tests of the weapon’s nuclear power unit were successfully completed during a major stage of trials.
The trials ‘sustained the stated specifications of the reactor ensuring the missile’s unlimited range’, claimed a source.
A separate recent US intelligence assessment found that the explosion on 8 August off a missile testing range at Nyonoksa came during a recovery mission to salvage a lost Burevestnik from the sea floor, said CNBC.
The radiation released was ‘one thousand times higher than lethal’, it was reported.
The Burevestnik is seen by the Kremlin as a low-flying stealth cruise missile incapable of interception by existing Western air defences and delivering nuclear warheads anywhere around the globe.
Preparation: Burevestnik cruise missile is pictured being completed for its first deployment
Russia has made multiple attempts to test the unlimited range Burevestnik – also known as Skyfall – none of which have been successful, according to the US intelligence report
Some accounts have linked the White Sea incident (pictured) to the Burevestnik, although various experts dispute this, but the Kremlin has refused to reveal the truth
Both Sergey Pichugin and Vyacheslav Lipshev died during last month’s explosion during a missile test of a ‘doomsday’ weapon in the White Sea, leading to a radiation leak
Vladimir Putin has called it ‘a radically new type of weaponry’ with ‘unlimited range and unlimited ability to manoeuvre’.
Meanwhile, others have also waded in.
‘Russia is committed to a massive investment in new systems like this to defeat U.S. missile defences,’ warned Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
‘We are stumbling toward an arms race.’
He told CNBC: ‘(Donald) Trump’s personal friendship with Putin is no substitute for the treaties that restrained the nuclear superpowers.
‘Whatever the two leaders say, the U.S. and Russian militaries are spending billions on new nuclear weapons targeted at each other.’
