The Russian president said
Putin made his remarks at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall near the Kremlin on March 1,2018. Some lawmakers smiled and cheered as he detailed the various weapon development programs. These included the cruise missile with a nuclear engine, as well as the publicly known RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the previously unacknowledged nuclear-tipped Avangard hypersonic boost-glide vehicle and Kanyon or Status-6 nuclear-armed unmanned undersea vehicle, a possibly dual-purpose nuclear and conventional air-launched hypersonic cruise missile called Kinzhal, and a short-range directed-energy system visually similar to the U. S. Navy’s own AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon System. “No one has listened to us,” Putin declared. “You listen to us now.” The most eye-catching of the announcements is clearly the as yet unnamed nuclear-powered cruise missile. The basic concept is hardly new, but depending on how functional and reliable the final design might be, it could be a potentially game-changing development. Though we don’t know how the Russians plan to configure this missile, in the 1960s, the U. S. Air Force explored a similar idea with the Supersonic Low Altitude Missile, or SLAM. This weapon employed a nuclear-powered ramjet along with conventional rocket boosters to kickstart the system. Once at the appropriate speed, the engine would blow air over the reactor, which could have enough fuel to operate for weeks or months on end, and then force it out of an exhaust nozzle to produce thrust.
In theory, this system allows for almost unlimited range. A computer generated graphic accompanying Putin’s announcement showed the missile plotting a course from Russia into the Atlantic, flying around South America’s Cape Horn, and then continuing on to strike what appeared to be a target in Hawaii. Cruising at high speed on a circuitous route at extremely low altitude, the missile could potentially avoid surface- and space-based early warning systems and missile defense interceptors. With a two-way data link, operators could potentially modify its course in flight to further confuse an opponent or actively counter any attempts to shoot the weapon down. The American SLAM concept also involved a design carrying multiple nuclear warheads that it could drop on different targets along the way, but it is not clear whether the Russian system includes any features that allow it to strike at more than one location.
“No one in the world has anything like that,” Putin said. “It may appear someday, but by that time we will develop something new.” The main problem with nuclear propulsion systems is safety and environmental hazards. To be small enough to reasonably fit inside a missile, the nuclear ramjet the United States developed for SLAM and other projects had no shielding to contain dangerous radiation. The exhaust plume also contained unspent fissile material that would have contaminated any area, enemy controlled or not, that it passed over on its way to the target. Putin suggested tests of the propulsion system had occurred in 2017, but there was no indication of whether this had been in flight or on the ground and under what conditions. An actual, but grainy video accompanied this portion of his announcement, but it was unclear whether or not this was actually a prototype of the cruise missile. In addition, the Russian president publicly unveiled a nuclear hypersonic boost glide vehicle called Avangard, which he said would go on the future RS-26 Rubezh ICBM. Weapons of this type follow a very different flight trajectory within the atmosphere, can make rapid course changes, and have different signatures compared to traditional ICBMs, which could make them harder for sensors and defense systems to spot and engage.
This makes these systems ideal for no- or short-notice strikes against critical items, such as enemy strategic capabilities, air and missile defenses, and command and control facilities, as well as potentially fleeting targets, including military or civilian leadership. In September 2017, the Russians said they had tested an RS-12M Topol missile with an “advanced combat payload,” which could have been an Avangard prototype, and you can read more broadly about the potential capabilities of such a weapon here. This hypersonic boost vehicle has also long been among the many rumored capabilities of the up-coming RS-28 Sarmat ICBM, which has been publicly in development since 2014 and the Russians expect it to enter service by 2021. This system, which NATO also calls the SS-X-30 Satan 2, will replace the older R-36M or SS-18 Satan as Russia’s primary silo-based ICBM. The RS-28 is reportedly significant faster than the older R-36M and will carry multiple warheads of some form, each capable of independent movement. Beyond the possible use of hypersonic boost glide vehicle warheads, other reports have suggested it might have a fractional orbital bombardment capability, in which the re-entry vehicles enter low earth orbit briefly and „go cold,“ making it hard to track their onward progress before they come hurtling down on a target.
Launched from a submarine well off shore, the underwater drone then makes it ways to the target area, avoiding any sensor networks or other defenses, before detonating its reportedly dirty warhead, causing significant immediate damage and lasting contamination. A computer generated presentation about the vehicle shows a modified Oscar II class submarine carrying a pair of the unmanned submarines in a special forward compartment. Putin suggest the drone would be „100 times smaller“ than traditional submarines and therefore be especially difficult to detect. It would also be able to travel at „extreme depths“ and at speeds that „greatly exceeds the speed of all submarines, up-to-date torpedoes and all types of high-speed surface ships,” making it even harder for an opponent to spot and intercept it before it reached the target area.
Previous reports, as well as accompanying video, suggest the weapons are large, though, which might necessitate a new, specialized mothership. The same video presentation paired with Putin’s discussion of this system appeared to show a more conventional torpedo, but its not clear if this is supposed to be stand-in for the nuclear-armed drone or if that craft might launch those weapons itself once it gets closer to the target. There is the suggestion that this unmanned undersea vehicle may have a nuclear powerplant, as well, which could conceivably allow submarine carrying it to launch it from almost anywhere in the world. The Russians appear to envision the system as a means of targeting task forces of surface warships – all of the computer-generated examples were clearly based on American designs – including aircraft carrier strike groups, as well as naval bases and ports.
In general, these types of weapons typically use a rocket motor to kickstart an air-breathing engine of some kind to push them to at least Mach 6, making them harder for existing land- and space-based sensors to spot. Already capable of potentially making rapid course corrections and otherwise flying erratically, the weapon’s speed could make it very difficult for most existing surface- and airborne radars to track in order to cue an interceptor or other close-in defense system. As with the hypersonic boost glide vehicles, this means these missiles could be a game-changing capability, giving Russian jets the ability to launch no- or short-notice strikes at long distance against enemy ships or land-based targets.
