Russia says hypersonic missile scientists face 'very serious' treason accusations

[Kennah]

Source: Reuters

Three Russian academics who have worked on hypersonic missile technology face "very serious accusations", the Kremlin said on Wednesday, in a treason investigation that has spread alarm through Russia's scientific community.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was aware of an open letter from Siberian scientists in defence of the men, but that the case was a matter for the security services.

In the letter, published on Monday, colleagues of Anatoly Maslov, Alexander Shiplyuk and Valery Zvegintsev protested their innocence and said the prosecutions threatened to inflict grave damage on Russian science.

"We know each of them as a patriot and a decent person who is not capable of doing what the investigating authorities suspect them of," they said.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-says-three-scientists-face-very-serious-accusations-treason-case-2023-05-17/

---

Stay away from windows and don't smoke

[Trenzalore]

1. Ah, the Stalin stage

Where you kill the smart people that can help you because you are a paranoid megalomaniac.

[COL Mustard]

8. Don't walk under Moscow highrises

Especially near the Lubyanka.

[orangecrush]

2. Trump sent their names

To Russian security services from the documents he stole, probably.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Putin has exposed the weakness of his military

These scientists may be used as scapegoats for Putin's failures

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Maybe they jiggered the numbers, like everybody else in Ruzzian military and industrial complex

Told the boss the missiles worked. Went x kph speed, with y radar profile and z manoeuvring capability.

Boss was happy, told Putin.

Putin believed the numbers.

Missiles can't make the numbers, probably.

[Tetrachloride]

7. Its a nice theory. Will see.

[COL Mustard]

9. I think you may know

More about this type of subject than the average bear. AmIrite?

[Tetrachloride]

18. No. But I have plausible alternative or 2.

[COL Mustard]

19. I'm making an assumption based on your name

And your avatar. I assumed that you were involved with rocketry in some capacity or another.

[Tetrachloride]

21. )) just an friendliness with STEM

old school or less

[ProfessorGAC]

31. To Clarify...

...there can be no tetrachlorides in rocket fuels.
There are no oxidation attack sites left when all the available sites are halogenated.
For instance, carbon tetrachloride (CCL4) does not even burn. Some saturated fluoro/chlorocarbons were used as fire extinguishing agents. (Perhaps you've heard of Halon.)
They'd be useless in rockets.
Perhaps your thinking of peroxides which are abundantly used as the oxygen source in solid rockets fuels.

[sarisataka]

16. I have some other bad news for putin

His nuclear torpedo is not going to cause a mile high radioactive tsunami either.

[Warpy]

5. Pretty funny, of course they faked the specs, this is Russia we're talking about

I knew when the first one got shot down it couldn't be doing anywhere near the mach 12 they said it would.

Meanwhile, the US has tested one at mach 14 plus a few more that blew up at or shortly after launch. The research here was done in the late 40s, but it was considered to be overpriced and unnecessary because by the time a "slow" missile was spotted coming in, it would probably hit the target before anyone (meaning Russians) could shoot it down and the project was shelved.

[Kennah]

11. The Mach 5 in Speed Racer couldn't go Mach 5, so they figured ...

[COL Mustard]

20. They also thought that

Having a Universal Remote meant that they could actually control the Universe. Somebody ought to tell them how many AA batteries that would take.

[ProfessorGAC]

32. More Than 2?

Who knew?

[MayReasonRule]

33. 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Source

[ProfessorGAC]

34. I Always Go With Six As The Answer To Everything

You take your Hitchhiker's number, add the digits, what do we get?
See?
For many years, one of my techs or chemists would say "I have a question." I'd just say "Six" They were used to it.
In fact, I had some say "I have a question where the answer isn't six." Hoist by my own petard.

[Ilsa]

24. Faked specs, etc, is one reason why the HBO miniseries, Chernobyl,

is "must-see TV". Everything from bureaucrats making decicions for political reasons vs science, the fraud and fear.

[ChazInAz]

6. Potemkin missiles!

[Obvious85]

10. 'Pause the War!' - Russia is going to call a time-out

'Our scientists screwed-up, it's their fault, rules of War say we get a time-out and a re-do' - baby Putin

[Ilsa]

25. Putin's calling a mulligan, just like IRG* told him to.

IRG: Insurrectionist Rapist Guy aka TFG.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

12. Won't need to be hypersonic

Going out the high windows.

[TexasTowelie]

14. Why spend money on a hypersonic missile program

while the US is working on a laser program that can destroy the missiles at the speed of light for the cost of a cup of coffee?

[The Wizard]

15. This calls for

bleach injections.

[DFW]

17. Putin probably is frustrated about his cost-effect ratio, Ukraine vs. USA

He spent a fortune and years of development on missiles against which there was supposed to be no defense.

Against the USA, all he had to do was pump a few hundred million dollars of dark money into the campaign coffers of the Republican Party, especially Florida, Texas, Kentucky and the Midwest, and presto! National paralysis without firing a shot, losing a man, or one piece of military hardware. Not only that: 99% of the Republicans won‘t know it, and the remaining 1% won‘t admit it (we have tenth story windows in the USA, too, ya know).

[AZ8theist]

23. "He spent a fortune and years of development on missiles...."

Uh, no:

"He spent a fortune and years of development on luxury dachas and super yachts for all his cronies"

There, fixed it for ya!

[DFW]

27. Not my kind of fix

The Ukrainians were not plagued by dachas and yachts raining down on them at hypersonic speeds.

[AZ8theist]

28. Granted.

My point was the abject corruption of Russian society in general, and the military in particular, has left his war machine in shambles with crap weapons that don't impress anybody. Already their hardware customers are looking elsewhere. The only thing they have is volume over substance.

Ukraine will survive.

Putin will not.

And EVERY SINGLE REPUKE TRAITOR in America can GO FUCK THEMSELVES.

[ribrepin]

22. This is the most Russian thing EVER!

blame it on the underlings.

[SWBTATTReg]

26. A lot of them got shot down over Ukraine, has got to be embarrassing to some in the Kremlin,

I am guessing but unfortunately, they'll pick on an unfortunate peon who really has nothing to do with the missiles or the program and claim that justice has been served. You know, the 'Russian way'.

[Wonder Why]

29. They just shot the janitor at the hypersonic development laboratory.

He noticed the plans and in perusing them, found a lot of things the scientists missed and penciled in the fixes. He was executed for not finished the toilet bowl cleaning that night.

[maxsolomon]

30. Read the entire article, still don't understand what they're accused of doing.

Giving away secrets by writing a book? Presenting research in France?