Moscow Announces Effective Evaluation of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Missile

Russia has tested the reactor-driven Burevestnik cruise missile, according to the country's top military official.

"We have launched a multi-hour flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it covered a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the ultimate range," Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to the head of state in a televised meeting.

The low-flying experimental weapon, first announced in the past decade, has been described as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to evade anti-missile technology.

Foreign specialists have previously cast doubt over the weapon's military utility and Moscow's assertions of having successfully tested it.

The national leader stated that a "last accomplished trial" of the missile had been held in last year, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had limited accomplishment since the mid-2010s, according to an arms control campaign group.

The military leader said the projectile was in the air for fifteen hours during the trial on 21 October.

He noted the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were determined to be up to specification, according to a national news agency.

"As a result, it displayed advanced abilities to evade defensive networks," the media source reported the commander as saying.

The weapon's usefulness has been the topic of vigorous discussion in armed forces and security communities since it was originally disclosed in 2018.

A 2021 report by a American military analysis unit determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would provide the nation a singular system with worldwide reach potential."

Nonetheless, as a global defence think tank noted the corresponding time, the nation encounters considerable difficulties in developing a functional system.

"Its integration into the nation's stockpile likely depends not only on resolving the substantial engineering obstacle of securing the consistent operation of the reactor drive mechanism," analysts wrote.

"There have been several flawed evaluations, and an accident leading to several deaths."

A defence publication referenced in the report asserts the projectile has a operational radius of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, permitting "the missile to be based throughout the nation and still be capable to target targets in the American territory."

The identical publication also notes the weapon can operate as at minimal altitude as 164 to 328 feet above the surface, making it difficult for aerial protection systems to stop.

The weapon, code-named an operational name by a Western alliance, is believed to be powered by a atomic power source, which is designed to activate after initial propulsion units have launched it into the atmosphere.

An investigation by a news agency recently located a site 475km north of Moscow as the probable deployment area of the armament.

Using satellite imagery from August 2024, an specialist told the service he had observed nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the facility.

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