New intelligence reports coming out of Russia seem to be confirming that Russian scientists are developing a nuclear space bomber. The plane will be fast enough to circle the world in only two hours and will have the capabilities of launching nuclear rockets from the far reaches of outer space.
The Russians have been working on the prototype for quite some time and are looking to make it operational with an official launch some time in 2020. The engine for the hypersonic nuclear space bomber will go on display in Russian in early September at a military technology forum. The engine has already been completed and tested according to Russian military officials. The finished craft is expected to weigh around 25 tons.
The engine will run on kerosene while it is in Earth’s atmosphere. Once it reaches the borders of outer space, the engine will switch to a mixture of methane and oxygen. The bomber will take off like any normal plane from a Russian air base and then will shift into hypersonic speed to evade both detection and pursuit. Once it reaches outer space, it will be able to fire its nuclear rockets and return to the air base as if it were a normal bombing run during a conventional war.
The Russian Defense Ministry, however, has denied the nuclear capability of the craft in recent days. They said that the foreign press has misinterpreted what is actually being built. The Russians claim that it is simply an advanced type of stealth bomber with no special capabilities and certainly no capability to carry nuclear tipped warheads.
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