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Researchers locate possible launch site for Russia’s new nuclear missile – Reuters
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Researchers locate possible launch site for Russia’s new nuclear missile – Reuters

Two US researchers claim to have identified a new potential deployment site for Russia’s nuclear-armed Burevestnik cruise missile, Reuters reported Monday.

Decker Eveleth, analyst at the research and analysis organization CNA, and Jeffery Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey According to Reuters, they have identified a construction project near a nuclear warhead storage facility 475 kilometers north of Moscow as a possible new deployment site for Burevestnik.

Satellite images of the site, known by two names: Vologda-20 and Chebsara, “suggest something very unique, very different. And of course we know that Russia is developing this nuclear-powered missile,” Lewis said.

Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists said the images from Vologda appeared to show launch pads and other objects “possibly” linked to Burevestnik, but he could not make a definitive assessment.

President Vladimir Putin boasted that the “invincible” Burevestnik had a virtually unlimited range and could evade American missile defenses when he unveiled it in 2018.

But test results of the missile, dubbed Skyfall by NATO, were poor, and Western experts question its strategic value.

The Burevestnik is believed to have exploded in August 2019 during efforts to recover it from the sea in northern Russia after it crashed during secret rocket engine tests, killing five scientists.

The Russian Defense Ministry and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to Reuters about the researchers’ assessments and the strategic value of the Burevestnik.

A Kremlin spokesman told Reuters that these were questions for the Defense Ministry and declined to comment further.

The U.S. State Department, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Air Force’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center declined to comment.

NATO also did not respond to questions about the alliance’s reactions to the deployment of this weapon.

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