A few days ago, on August 8, there was an explosion on a barge in the White Sea near Nyonoksa, Russia. That explosion tragically killed seven people, nuclear engineers and technicians working on a project. The project was described as "an isotopic power source for a liquid engine installation," but let's be completely clear here: they were developing the nuclear propulsion system for a genuinely brutal and terrible weapon.
That weapon is known as 9M730 Burevestnik, known to NATO as the SSC-X-9 Skyfall, but is perhaps best understood as a modern rebirth of a terrifying American weapon concept from the 1960s known as the Flying Crowbar.
The Flying Crowbar was a nuclear-powered scramjet missile, capable of flying at hypersonic speeds with an almost indefinite range, spewing extremely radioactive exhaust and nuclear bombs all over the place.
[...] While this accident is absolutely a tragedy because of the loss of life and the significant radiation exposure in the area, the blow to the development of the 9M730 Burevestnik missile is not the tragic part.
The Burevestnik is not a defensive weapon; it's a weapon to attack at long range and spread death and destruction all along its path, even over people that have no involvement in whatever bullshit reason this thing was launched for.
Wikipedia entries on 9M730 Burevestnik and Flying Crowbar (aka Supersonic Low Altitude Missile).
(Score: 1) by garfiejas on Wednesday August 14 2019, @12:03PM
I commented on the explosion the other day, but this story reminded me of this https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28180/b-52-would-have-nuked-soviet-air-defenses-on-the-way-to-their-targets-using-these-missiles [thedrive.com], long range, literally designed to nuke everything with variable yield warheads that lit up its radar on its way to the target, nuke its target(s) and nuke everything that was still radiating EM on its way back to base. Thankfully taken out of service in the early 90's, but there are some awesome images in the article.