Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile: Expensive Propaganda Toy

October 28, 2025October 30, 2025

Probably many saw the photo or video where Khuilo¹ pushed his speech about another wunderwaffe. But this time — without demonstrating a cartoon and popcorn. Apparently, his military costume was supposed to inspire terror. But it didn’t work out. He looked not like a field marshal or generalissimo, but rather like a homeless person who stole a military uniform. And in such an appearance, he announced successful tests of the Burevestnik nuclear cruise missile — a weapon with a nuclear power plant that allegedly passed trials just a few days ago. The Chief of General Staff of the Pidars² Gerasimov provided more details about this new wunderwaffe.

It’s hard to say what their criteria for successful testing of such weapons are. Inside the missile sits, albeit primitive, but still — a nuclear reactor. If you can direct an ordinary missile at a target located at a specific point on a special range, then this one, wherever it falls, will cause a center of radioactive contamination. If this is success, then in that case — a very peculiar one.

Experts Express Surprise, Not Fear

But after Putin’s speech and announcement of the missile test, no special hype arose anywhere. This immediately suggested that positioning this unit as an ultimate weapon doesn’t correspond to reality. Moreover, all interested parties have a quite exhaustive understanding of what they’ve cooked up in the Swamps³.

The Wall Street Journal turned to a number of leading experts for clarification. Practically all of them expressed surprise rather than concern at such a statement from Putin. In their opinion, despite descriptions of the product’s outstanding capabilities, it’s rather an anachronism than a real and breakthrough means:

The downside is the obvious complexity of ‘Burevestnik,’ which increases the risk of failure. It has several propulsion systems that must be perfectly synchronized for launch and flight. The nuclear reactor’s power isn’t sufficient to launch the missile and bring it to the required trajectory. In addition, this increases the cost and complexity of production, maintenance, and operation.

Douglas Barrie, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, expressed this opinion. Deutsche Welle, researching this topic, writes approximately the same thing, but citing another expert’s words in this field of knowledge:

Carlo Masala, professor at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich, speaks more categorically. Moscow’s statement about ‘Burevestnik’ is a ‘propaganda show,’ since it sounded against the backdrop of NATO nuclear exercises and Donald Trump’s decision to impose his first sanctions against Russia.

The Strategic Self-Destruction Problem

In addition, a missile with a nuclear power plant crosses a dangerous barrier. Even the carrier itself, launched in a certain direction, already becomes a factor in starting nuclear war. Such a launch will unconditionally be tracked. The question arises how it will be interpreted precisely in this plane. The same WSJ publication, on this matter, quotes expert in international relations and foreign policy Boris Bondarev:

Any rational opponent, having detected the launch of a nuclear cruise missile, will be forced to consider this as the beginning of war. They may deliver a preemptive strike, including with ‘ordinary’ intercontinental ballistic missiles. As a result, ‘Burevestnik’ loses its meaning as a retaliation weapon and becomes a weapon of self-destruction — not physical, but strategic.

From here arises the question — this missile is “for what?” As far as can be understood, it can fly at a speed equivalent to what enemy cruise missiles Kh-101 currently demonstrate. We already know from our own experience that launches of these missiles are quite clearly recorded, as well as their flight route. Flight time to Ukraine — an hour and more. And how long will it fly to the USA if launched from the Swamps territory?

An Expensive, Glitchy, and Obsolete Toy

There are two factors blurring the boundary that traditionally existed between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons. The first is economic. Practically all experts agree the cost of such wunderwaffe — whether a missile or torpedo — will turn out at least an order of magnitude higher than an analogous product with an ordinary power plant. This means spending such ammunition in configurations with a non-nuclear warhead will be extremely wasteful. In such a case, you can and should use completely different instruments with lower cost and less side effect, which will unconditionally arise due to destruction of the nuclear power plant.

The second factor is that modern surveillance systems quite confidently distinguish the presence or absence of a nuclear component in one or another weapons sample. Probably everyone has seen messages that somewhere some carrier of nuclear weapons was noticed, equipped with nuclear ammunition. That is, they’ve completely worked out the methodology for determining the device’s nature. They’ve long used it in standard intelligence means. Devices exist that detect the presence of radioactive elements inside a specific weapons sample installed on a carrier’s board.

And these same means will identify the Burevestnik nuclear cruise missile as nuclear weapons simply because its power plant gives the same signature that corresponds to nuclear weapons. Military procedures developed for nuclear weapons use will activate simply because someone launched such a weapon, with all corresponding consequences. How effective such wunderwaffe are as weapons remains unknown. However, their provocative property is already obvious.

¹Khuilo – the most popular nickname for Russian dictator V. Putin. First used during the 2014 invasion, and since 2022 most Ukrainians call him only that. See more on Wikipedia.

²Pidar (pronounced “pidar”) – Ukrainian military slang for an enemy combatant. In radio communications, the word “Pidar” sounds shorter and clearer than “Enemy” especially under EW.

³Swamps – ironic name for Russia, emphasizing decay, stagnation, and filth.