Supply season to Pankovo reactor-weapons test site has started

Russia may be preparing for more tests of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered intercontinental cruise missiles. 

Several vessels sailing north from Arkhangelsk over the last week are now in the waters outside Pankovo, the test site at the Arctic archipelago in the eastern Barents Sea established by Rosatom’s weapon designers.

Pankovo has at least since 2017 been used to test the Burevestnik missile. Over the last three years the site has been substantially expanded and with new cargo now arriving, a further development can be expected.

The Barents Observer has tracked the three ships Bukhov, Petrogradskiy and Tavr as they left port in Arkhangelsk and now stay at anchor in the bay just outside the test area. 

A fourth ship, the RZK Constanta sailed out of the Dvina river delta in the early morning of July 10 and has set course north. Her destination reads Barents Sea, no ports of arrival is named.

Pankovo has no port. A floating jetty at shore has be put in place every summer the last few years before being removed in late autumn, satellite images from the site can tell. As the bay is rather shallow, barges are used to bring cargo from the ships to shore. 

Such cargo includes the infamous blue Rosatom containers, known from previous tests of the reactor-powered Burevestnik missile. 

Frequent updated satellite images, ship tracking, Notice to Airmen (NOTAMs), and Coastal Warnings (PRIPs) are a few of the open sources making it possible for outsiders to get an idea of what happens at the top secret Pankovo site.

All of the southern island of Novaya Zemlya is closed military area, and neither the defense ministry nor Rosatom publish information about the weapons testings. Foreign intelligence sources provide som insights.

“The intelligence service follows Russia’s weapons programs and testings closely, including this program," head of the Norwegian Intelligence Service, Nils Andreas Stensønes, told the Barents Observer in 2023. His concern is accidents and releases of radioactivity.

“There will always be a concern related to incidents with reactor-powered weapons systems,” Stensønes said.

Satellite images reveal massive upgrade at Nenoksa naval missile testing site

In 2018, a US intelligence source told media that Russia had started search at sea for a missile that crashed during test. Four missile tests took place the year before and those missiles that landed at target were recovered from the seabed.

The missile, designated by NATO as SSC-X-9 Skyfall, is launched with a scramjet and when up in air, a small nuclear reactor starts and boosts the missile's range, allegedly to be intercontinental.

When testings take place, the waters and airspace west of Novaya Zemlya are closed off from civilian shipping and commercial flights.

This year's first closure in the area that may be linked to testings of the Burevestnik missil was in force the last few days on June, according to Bluesky user Puca. The restrictions were lifted the week after.