Death toll rises re: russian radiation explosion

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five additional people

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3.6 roentgen?

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One of the shortcomings of the 3M22 is that it is fairly short range. According to most estimates, while the 3M22 hypersonic cruise missile can reach Mach 8 or Mach 9 (at least for part of its flight), its outer range is around 540 nautical miles (1,000 km), putting it well within reach of US stealth bombers and carrier-based F-35s. All of this means that under combat conditions, the Kirov-class battlecruisers would be sitting ducks. It therefore makes sense that the Russians would want to extend the range of the 3M22, by doubling or tripling it. Assuming the Kirov class has good enough radar, or can coordinate with overhead assets (aircraft, satellites), an extended range 3M22 would make sense.

The question then arises how could that be achieved? There are essentially two ways: either a much bigger liquid fuel rocket (which might be too large even for a battlecruiser, and would take some time into the future to be available), or a nuclear-thermal engine, either a booster or as a second stage before the scramjet is activated. In turn, this would dramatically change the flight profile, perhaps near the exoatmosphere and reserve the scramjet for the last attack stages.

Work has been done on nuclear rocket engines, mostly for use in space mission applications. The US tested them many years ago; Britain has been known to work on them, and so too have the Russians.

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The Russian program – RD-0410 – ran between 1965 and 1980 and testing took place at Semipalatinsk, then the Soviet Union’s nuclear test site. Exactly what the Russians have been doing since 1980 is impossible to say. But this is exactly the sort of project that could appeal to Russia’s scientists and engineers, and to Russia’s Defense Ministry that is always looking to gain an advantage over their main rival, the United States. With the US now gathering steam in with its own hypersonic cruise missiles, the Russians could well have been looking to get another jump on the Pentagon.

This appears to be the most likely explanation and makes sense in connection with Rosatom’s statement.

In any case, it is utterly irresponsible to test a nuclear-powered rocket engine in a sensitive location near the Arctic circle and close to heavily populated areas, particularly Finland and Sweden. Had the rocket flown an errant course the consequences could have been disastrous.

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