World

US researchers find probable launch site of Russia’s new nuclear-powered missile

A Kremlin spokesman said these were questions for the defence ministry and declined further comment.

Published

2 years ago

September 3, 2024

Two U.S. researchers say they have identified the probable deployment site in Russia of the 9M370 Burevestnik, a new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile touted by President Vladimir Putin as “invincible.”

Putin has said the weapon – dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO – has an almost unlimited range and can evade U.S. missile defenses. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik’s strategic value, saying it will not add capabilities that Moscow does not already have and risks a radiation-spewing mishap.

Using images taken on July 26 by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite firm, the two researchers identified a construction project abutting a nuclear warhead storage facility known by two names – Vologda-20 and Chebsara – as the new missile’s potential deployment site. The facility is 295 miles (475 km) north of Moscow.

Reuters is the first to report this development.

Decker Eveleth, an analyst with the CNA research and analysis organization, found the satellite imagery and identified what he assessed are nine horizontal launch pads under construction. They are located in three groups inside high berms to shield them from attack or to prevent an accidental blast in one from detonating missiles in the others, he said.

The berms are linked by roads to what Eveleth concluded are likely buildings where the missiles and their components would be serviced, and to the existing complex of five nuclear warhead storage bunkers.

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

Russia’s defense ministry and Washington embassy did not respond to a request to comment on his assessment, Burevestnik’s strategic value, its test record and the risks it poses.

A Kremlin spokesman said these were questions for the defence 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 National Air and Space Intelligence Center declined to comment.

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

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

Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, who also studied the Vologda imagery at Eveleth’s request, said that it appears to show launch pads and other features “possibly” related to Burevestnik. But he said he could not make a definitive assessment because Moscow does not typically place missile launchers next to nuclear warhead storage.

Eveleth, Lewis, Kristensen and three other experts said Moscow’s normal practice has been stockpiling nuclear payloads for land-based missiles far from launch sites – except for those on its deployed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) force.

But deploying the Burevestnik at Vologda would allow the Russian military to stockpile the nuclear-armed missiles in its bunkers, making them available to launch quickly, said Lewis and Eveleth.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia will make changes to its guidelines on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what it regards as Western escalation in the war in Ukraine, state news agency TASS reported on Sunday.

POOR TEST RECORD

A 2020 report by the United States Air Force’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center said that if Russia successfully brought the Burevestnik into service, it would give Moscow a “unique weapon with intercontinental-range capability”.

But the weapon’s checkered past and design limitations raised doubts among eight experts interviewed by Reuters about whether its deployment would change the nuclear stakes for the West and other Russian foes.

The Burevestnik has a poor test record of at least 13 known tests, with only two partial successes, since 2016, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), an advocacy group focused on reducing nuclear, biological and emergent technology risks.

The setbacks include a 2019 blast during the botched recovery of an unshielded nuclear reactor allowed to “smolder” on the White Sea floor for a year following a prototype crash, according to State Department.

Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom said five staff members died during the testing of a rocket on Aug. 8. Putin presented their widows with top state awards, saying the weapon they were developing was without equal in the world, without naming the Burevestnik.

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

Moreover, its nuclear-powered engine threatens to disgorge radiation along its flight path and its deployment risks an accident that could contaminate the surrounding region, said Cheryl Rofer, a former U.S. nuclear weapons scientist and other experts.

“The Skyfall is a uniquely stupid weapon system, a flying Chernobyl that poses more threat to Russia than it does to other countries,” agreed Thomas Countryman, a former top State Department official with the Arms Control Association, referring to the 1986 nuclear plant disaster.

NATO did not respond to questions about how the alliance would respond to the weapon’s deployment.

Little publicly is known about the Burevestnik’s technical details.

Experts assess that it would be sent aloft by a small solid-fuel rocket to drive air into an engine containing a miniature nuclear reactor. Superheated and possibly radioactive air would be blasted out, providing forward thrust.

Putin unveiled it in March 2018, saying the missile would be “low flying,” with nearly unlimited range, an unpredictable flight path and “invincible” to current and future defenses.

Many experts are skeptical of Putin’s claims.

The Burevestnik, they say, could have a range of some 15,000 miles (23,000 km) – compared to more than 11,000 miles (17,700 km) for the Sarmat, Russia’s newest ICBM – while its subsonic speed would make it detectable.

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

The Burevestnik’s deployment is not banned by New START, the last U.S.-Russian accord limiting strategic nuclear weapon deployments, which expires in February 2026.

A provision allows Washington to request negotiations with Moscow on bringing the Burevestnik under the caps but a State Department spokesperson said no such talks had been sought.

Citing the war in Ukraine, Russia has spurned U.S. calls for unconditional talks on replacing New START, stoking fears of an all-out nuclear arms race when it expires.

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

He called the Burevestnik a “political weapon” that Putin used to bolster his strongman image before his 2018 re-election and to telegraph to Washington that it cannot dismiss his concerns over U.S. missile defenses and other issues.

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World

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un reappointed as president of state affairs, KCNA says

Published

7 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Ariana News

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was reappointed as president of state affairs, ‌state media KCNA reported on Monday, after the isolated nation convened the first session of its Supreme People’s Assembly a day earlier.

The meeting in Pyongyang will discuss amendments and supplements to the socialist constitution, as well as the election of the chairman of the State Affairs Commission and ⁠other state leadership bodies, Reuters reported.

The assembly, North Korea’s rubber-stamp legislature that formally approves state policy, typically meets following a ruling Workers’ Party Congress to turn party decisions into law.

The meeting will also review the country’s economic five-year plan announced at the ninth party congress held in February, KCNA said.

Attention has been focused on whether Pyongyang will revise its constitution to formalise leader Kim Jong Un’s “two hostile states” policy toward South Korea.

In recent years, Kim has abandoned Pyongyang’s long-standing goal ‌of peaceful ⁠reunification and redefined the South as a hostile state.

Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, was notably absent from KCNA’s list of members of the State Affairs Commission, the country’s highest leadership body, on which she had served since 2021.

South Korea’s ⁠Unification Ministry said it was looking into why she was no longer listed, but analysts said the move did not necessarily signal a loss of influence.

“Her absence suggests not ⁠a decline in status but a strategic division of roles,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University, adding that the younger Kim continues to ⁠wield real power as a department director in the ruling Workers’ Party, where she may play a higher-level, party-centred role coordinating policy.

World

Trump threatens Iran with power plant strikes over Hormuz oil blockade

Published

1 day ago

March 22, 2026

Ariana News

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran does not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, a significant escalation barely a day after he talked about “winding down” the war.

“If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from ‌this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” Trump said on social media, Reuters reported.

Trump’s ultimatum would expand the scope of U.S. strikes to infrastructure that affects daily civilian life in Iran.

The threat of Iranian attacks has kept most ships from getting through the strait, a narrow waterway that serves as the conduit for around a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, threatening a global energy shock. Its near-closure sent European gas prices surging as much as 35% last week.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military command headquarters said Sunday that if the U.S. attacks Iran’s fuel and energy infrastructure, then Iran would target all U.S. energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure in the region.

Energy prices spiked last week after Iran responded to an Israeli attack on its major gas field by hitting Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, ⁠which processes around a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas, causing damage that will take years to repair.

The threats to Gulf infrastructure came as the conflict entered dangerous new territory.

Israeli officials said Iranian forces had for the first time fired long-range missiles, expanding the risk of attacks beyond the Middle East, even as an Iranian strike injured dozens of people not far from Israel’s nuclear site.

Iran launched two ballistic missiles with a range of 4,000 km (2,500 miles) at the U.S.-British military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir said. The Israeli military said it was the first time Iran had used long-range missiles since the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on February 28.

“These missiles are not intended to strike Israel. Their range reaches European capitals – Berlin, Paris, and Rome are all within direct threat range,” Zamir said in a statement on Saturday.

A source at Britain’s defense ministry said the attack had occurred before the government gave specific authorization on Friday for the U.S. to use British military bases to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites.

More than 2,000 people have been killed during the war. In Israel, 15 people have been killed in Iranian strikes.

TRUMP SENDS MIXED SIGNALS

Trump and his administration have sent mixed messages about U.S. goals throughout the war, now in its fourth week, leaving U.S. allies struggling to respond.

Trump’s ultimatum on Saturday was the most abrupt shift yet. Trump’s rhetoric pivoted from a drawdown to an ‌explicit 48-hour countdown ⁠to strike Iran’s power infrastructure, even as U.S. Marines and heavy landing craft continue heading to the region.

Iran’s largest power plants include the Damavand power plant near Tehran (2,868 megawatts of capacity), the Kerman plant in southeastern Iran (1,910 MW), and the Ramin steam power plant in Khuzestan province (1,890 MW), according to industry and energy databases.

The country’s sole nuclear plant at Bushehr on Iran’s southern coast produces about 1,000 MW.

Earlier this month, Trump raised the idea of destroying Iran’s power grid even while downplaying the notion. “We could take apart their electric capacity within one hour, and it would take them 25 years to rebuild,” Trump told reporters on March 11. “So ideally, we’re not going to be doing that.”

U.S. voters appear increasingly concerned that the war could expand. Energy price shocks are fuelling inflation, hitting consumers and businesses hard, ⁠a major political liability for Trump as he seeks to justify the war to the public before November elections in which control of Congress is at stake.

Trump had also accused NATO allies of cowardice over their reluctance to help open the strait. Some allies have said they will consider it, but most say they are reluctant to join a war that Trump started without consulting them.

IRANIAN STRIKES HIT SOUTHERN ISRAEL

The Israeli military said on Sunday that it is conducting strikes in Tehran, hours after attacks on southern Israel.

Late on Saturday, ⁠Iranian missiles hit the southern Israeli cities of Dimona and Arad, injuring dozens of people, including children, in separate strikes. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement early Sunday that they targeted “military installations” and security centers in southern Israel.

Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a post on X that the country’s air defenses were functioning but did not intercept the strikes. “We will investigate the incident and learn from it,” he said.

Israel’s secretive nuclear reactor is about 13 km (8 miles) ⁠southeast of Dimona. Both cities lie near several military sites, including Nevatim Air Base, one of the country’s largest.

“This has been a very difficult evening in the battle for our future,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office following the strike on Arad.

“We are determined to continue striking our enemies on all fronts,” the statement said.

World

Trump compares Iran strikes to Pearl Harbor in meeting with Japan’s leader

Published

3 days ago

March 20, 2026

Ariana News

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday compared recent U.S. strikes on Iran to Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, as he defended his administration’s military actions during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House.

Responding to a question about why allies were not informed in advance, Trump said the element of surprise was intentional. “We wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan?” he said, referencing the attack on Attack on Pearl Harbor.

The remark appeared to catch Takaichi off guard, as she reacted visibly during the Oval Office meeting.

Japan’s 1941 attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii killed more than 2,300 Americans and led the United States to enter World War II. Then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously described the day as “a date which will live in infamy.”

The war ended in 1945 after U.S. atomic bombings of Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Trump’s comments drew mixed reactions in Japan. Some observers said the comparison was inappropriate given its historical sensitivity, while others downplayed it as a joke.

Speaking in Tokyo, engineer Yuta Nakamura said Takaichi had been placed in a difficult position but handled the moment carefully. Meanwhile, retiree Tokio Washino said the reference made him feel uneasy, given Japan’s wartime history.