September 1, 2019
Forget Russia: America Nearly Built Its Own 'Skyfall' Nuclear Powered Cruise Missile
It would have been a disaster.
by Sebastien Roblin
After days of speculation by Western analysts that a deadly accident on August 8 that briefly spiked radiation levels in northwestern Russia was tied to tests of an exotic nuclear-powered “Skyfall†nuclear-powered cruise missile, Russian sources confirmed to the New York Times the explosion of a “small nuclear reactor.â€
While there’s a tactical rationale behind Russia’s development of a fast, surface-skimming cruise missile with an unlimited range as a means of bypassing American missile defenses, it strikes many analysts as an inordinately expensive, extremely technically challenging, and—evidently!—downright unsafe.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/forget-russia-america-nearly-built-its-own-skyfall-nuclear-powered-cruise-missile-77226
