Update on Russian Explosion

| August 13, 2019

BOOM!

From the Times of Israel comes this update on what happened in northern Russia on August 8th:  https://www.timesofisrael.com/radiation-spiked-up-to-16-times-normal-after-russian-nuclear-missile-blast/

From the article:  Unnamed intelligence sources told The New York Times that they believed the explosion involved a prototype missile known in NATO circles as the SSC-X-9 Skyfall, which could theoretically reach anywhere on the planet. Russian President Vladimir Putin showed off an animation of such a system last year.

If successfully deployed, such a weapon would pose a strategic threat to the United States because it would be capable of bypassing current American missile defenses. However, there is currently no indication that the Russians have managed to succeed where their geopolitical rivals have failed.

US President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States is learning “much” from the deadly blast but that  “we have similar, though more advanced, technology.” – article.

Since the radiation levels were reported by sources other than Moscow as spiking up to 16 times normal levels, and Moscow did try to squelch some of the information, it may be prudent to take the unnamed sources seriously, but with a grain of salt. If nukes are where he’s spending his Gazprom money, he’d be better off developing industries that aren’t aimed at reviving the Cold War.

Category: Cold War, Foreign Policy, Nukes, Russia

31 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Sh Boom Sh Boom. Chords on Cat 1954 first pressing.

26Limabeans
Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

The Chords originaly wrote and sang Sh Boom and the Crew Cuts in the same year re wrote the song. The Chords were a black group and the Crew Cuts from Canada were a white group. Back in the day, this was called Sham Rock. I like both versions. This was the Chords only hit and after several failures, most of the members left and made a living doing other things.

Dustoff

I’m sure, someone from the poser community will soon profess to have gone on a “black operation” that took out the nuke/missile. Of course said “operator” was minding his own business in a remote cabin near Frostbite Falls Minnesota, when….the phone rang,…on the other end was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs…

rgr769

Are you implying Rocky and Bullwinkle carried out this spec op? Cuz that would mean Boris and Natasha are likely coming after moose and squirrel in retaliation.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Is Commander McBrag involved in this Op???

11B-Mailclerk

“Quite.”

AW1Ed

“Hold my vodka, Tovarich, and watch this!”

Devtun

…and the crowds in Times Square scattered in panic yet again.

Mason

What is the SSC X-9? Oh, just your average 𝙣𝙪𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙, nuclear armed cruise missile. What could go wrong?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik

Anonymous
11B-Mailclerk

So Vlad has

(Put on sunglasses)

A Cruise Fissile.

timactual

Oooooh, you bad boy!

Graybeard

So bad it’s good. Bravo.

NHSparky

EEEYYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!

OWB

😉

David

Believe I read elsewhere that 16x emission was still substantially lowe than what you get exposed to on a typical transoceanic flight.

AW1Ed

Do you know who else had amps that went to eleven?

11B-Mailclerk

It does look like Rosatom needs another percussionist.

NHSparky

That’s because he forgot that the pickle goes in the FRONT.

timactual

Is that where the phrse “jerkin’ the gherkin” comes from?

timactual

In case anyone is interested in nuclear powered missiles, a couple of interesting sites—

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Rover

Perhaps we have a new “missile gap”.

5th/77th FA

Who’s to say that Vlad and the boys didn’t dust off some of this and other old research works. I mean, just cause no one got all the bugs out of the proposed systems, doesn’t mean that the bugs couldn’t be worked out now.

Look how close the Germans got to having the FIRST Atomic Bombs. Taking out their heavy water plant and other research facilities, and an unlimited secret budget, got us there before they could get to the test point.

Ret_25X

except that the Germans never actually got close to atomic bombs…good thing, too, as they had an actual delivery system…

The Dead Man

They were closer to a blue flash than a nuke. Also The V1/V2 had a 60% accuracy against a country. It’s potato fuel and labor killed more than the rockets did.

David

Seems to me they were aiming at power production, since their fuel shortages were dire by ’44.

Bubble Soldier

Did we find the KA-BOOM?

OWB

Note to Vlad: If you really want a world wide threat, ya might wanna work on the delivery system just a wee bit more. It’s like this – first ya gotta get the thing off the ground. Bad boom-booms seldom walk themselves to your intended target.