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Five Russian nuclear engineers were killed in a rocket engine explosion on Thursday.
Many believe that the explosion was linked to the development of a nuclear powered cruise missile promised by Putin last year.
Radiation levels in nearby towns spiked to 20 times their regular levels.
Naturally, President Donald Trump was quick to tweet about it.
The President claimed the United States was "learning much" from the explosion before bragging that we have more advanced technology.
The United States is learning much from the failed missile explosion in Russia. We have similar, though more advanc… https://t.co/vV30xKIVtz— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1565645192.0
The problem?
The United States gave up efforts to build nuclear powered cruise missiles half a century ago. They're too dangerous to test and too impractical to execute.
So, Trump either just blabbed on Twitter that the United States does in fact have a covert nuclear powered cruise missile program, or he lied to engage Putin in a pissing contest of nuclear proportions.
Neither option is a comfort to experts in the field.
It is a bad idea for the President to tell the world the U.S. has secret nuclear powered super-weapons and that we'… https://t.co/a6zcaFvuFj— David Burbach (@David Burbach)1565646021.0
This is bizarre. We do not have a nuclear-powered cruise missile program. We tried to build one, in the 1960's, but… https://t.co/FdyFERN2Kg— Joe Cirincione (@Joe Cirincione)1565645815.0
@McFaul @LauraSHHolgate @NarangVipin @steven_pifer @LSRTweets @JBWolfsthal 1. We are not “learning a lot.” 2. We h… https://t.co/InF10iK087— Joe Cirincione (@Joe Cirincione)1565666984.0
Even the former Ambassador to Russia was like "lol wut?".
We have similar technology? Nuclear-powered cruise missiles? I wasn't read into that program when I worked at the… https://t.co/TKVl6TfT0m— Michael McFaul (@Michael McFaul)1565665600.0
Bulletin of the Atomic Senior Fellow Stephen Schwartz wanted to know if the President was "baselessly boasting or divulging secrets?"
we abandoned this weapon concept (Project PLUTO and the Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile or SLAM) in 1964 because it… https://t.co/db0uqN87Ps— Stephen Schwartz (@Stephen Schwartz)1565649924.0
And, honestly, so do we.
@McFaul @LauraSHHolgate @NarangVipin @steven_pifer @Cirincione @LSRTweets @JBWolfsthal All behold the sheer incompe… https://t.co/sB89E350Df— mac steele (@mac steele)1565665817.0
@Cirincione @djrothkopf Maybe he just watched “Skyfall” and thinks it’s real. 🤷♂️— Brian (@Brian)1565646903.0
@dburbach @maddezmom We are not safe with Trump in the White House. Our enemies are playing him. Trump is weak and vain.— Ktwitt (@Ktwitt)1565657368.0
@dburbach @Garossino I have many theories, but one is he thinks he's still on a reality TV show and his tweets are… https://t.co/G9M8clCvco— Julie Wilcox WX (@Julie Wilcox WX)1565659765.0
Basically...
Good luck, girl!
The Oscar nominated documentary American Experience: Command & Control based on the book of the same name is available here.
"Filmmaker Robert Kenner examines how human error caused an explosion at a nuclear site toward the end of the Cold War and links mutually assured destruction to self-annihilation."