Alex WellersteinVerified account

Ditto that. At least that’s what Putin suggested. But it’s probably also about the Russian military-industrial complex that seems to be having a field day coming up with fancy nuke projects that don’t seem to add much to Russian security.

Vaporware

The focus on high-profile exotic weapons has an almost Khrushchevian quality to it — except Khrushchev really was behind in key areas and thought his bluster could make up the difference.

I don't believe this Putin Drone exists. I am open to changing my mind should hard evidence emerge.

It's definitely a form of vaporware at this point. Some aspects have apparently been tested. But it is at best in development.

I suspect it's mostly on the drawing board. We've done a lot of things like that, that never came to fruition.

They have apparently tested something that would be like the propulsion system (so @russianforces told me — I am writing something on this work, once my semester finally ends). It's all plausible but there's a big gap between plausible and deployed.