Is Russia's 'Flying Chernobyl' Burevestnik missile the death of 'MAD' doctrine or just all hype?

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Sunday that the country has conducted a successful test of a unique nuclear-powered 'Burevestnik' cruise missile, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, that has unlimited range.

According to the Russian president, during recent drills of nuclear forces, the 'Burevestnik' missile was in the air for 15 hours and covered 14,000 kilometres.

Quite expectedly, the testing of the missile, touted as  'Flying Chernobyl', has attracted US President Donald Trump's ire as he said the Russian President should end the war in Ukraine instead of testing a nuclear-powered missile.

He also came out with a warning to the Russian side, saying the US does not need to fly so far as it had a nuclear submarine off the coast of Russia. "They know we have a nuclear submarine, the greatest in the world, right off their shores, so I mean, it doesn't have to go 8,000 miles." 

So, what can it do?

Referred by NATO as SSC-X-9 Skyfall, the ground-launched, low-flying cruise Russian nuclear-powered missile, which is reported to have a notional range of up to 20,000 km, can stay aloft for days undetected.

The doomsday superweapon has been compared to Project Pluto, the US attempt to develop a nuclear-powered ramjet cruise missile with essentially unlimited range, capable of evading missile defenses during the Cold War era.

Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of Russia's armed forces, has been quoted as saying that the weapon can beat any missile defence and has an unlimited range, owing to the nuclear propulsion, suggesting that this could beat the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine.

The MAD doctrine proposes that if two opposing powers possess enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other, then neither side will initiate a nuclear attack because doing so would guarantee their own destruction through retaliation.

It has been claimed that the powers of this missile is unmatched.

"In operation, the Burevestnik would carry a nuclear warhead (or warheads), circle the globe at low altitude, avoid missile defenses, and dodge terrain; and drop the warhead(s) at a difficult-to-predict location (or locations)," according to US-based non-profit security organisation Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov had earlier claimed that the missile can destroy the "remnants" of command posts, military bases, power plants, and factories of the enemy after Russia's intercontinental ballistic missiles have already devastated the air-defence systems of the enemy.

Besides, as it flies at a low altitude of 50 to 100 meters, it would be tough for the air-defence systems to detect the missile, say reports.

In 2021, the US Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Centre noted that a nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a unique weapon with intercontinental range capability.

Burevestnik and (the nuclear-powered unmanned underwater vehicle) Poseidon take aim at any US confidence in missile defense, noted an article published in the Journal of Science Policy & Governance. "These capabilities exist when a state can attack an opponent and take out their ability to strike back, which is facilitated by systems that evade detection so as to reduce the chance of launch under attack. Burevestnik and Poseidon take aim at any US confidence in missile defense," the article read.

The aim of Burevestnik and her sister weapons is to eliminate early warning, so that an opponent lacks the time or opportunity to retaliate fully, or even at all, it further said.

Inflated claims?

However, some experts argue that the missile does not offer any new advantage to Russia more than what other weapons like intercontinental ballistic missiles already grant. “Assuming that it works as advertised, it’s just a very long-range cruise missile,” nuclear weapons expert Pavel Podvig had earlier said.

There is also the issue of the success rate of the tests. According to media reports, at least 13 tests of the missile have been reported, but only two of these have been successful.

Defence and security expert Pavel Macko observed that Putin's claim that Burevestnik "has no equal in the world and is an indestructible weapon" has no relevance, even if it were true, adding, "Unless Putin can stop all US missiles with nuclear warheads, it is just blackmail and an attempt to apply reflexive control."

He claimed that Putin is trying to unnerve the Western population and politicians and spread a false feeling of nuclear impunity among Russian citizens and the Russian fifth column in the Western countries.