Moscow Announces Accomplished Trial of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Missile
The nation has evaluated the reactor-driven Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the country's senior general.
"We have launched a prolonged flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the maximum," Chief of General Staff the commander told the head of state in a televised meeting.
The terrain-hugging experimental weapon, originally disclosed in recent years, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to bypass missile defences.
Western experts have previously cast doubt over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.
The national leader said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the weapon had been carried out in 2023, but the assertion lacked outside validation. Of at least 13 known tests, just two instances had partial success since the mid-2010s, according to an disarmament advocacy body.
Gen Gerasimov stated the projectile was in the air for fifteen hours during the evaluation on 21 October.
He explained the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were determined to be complying with standards, as per a national news agency.
"As a result, it displayed superior performance to evade defensive networks," the outlet stated the general as saying.
The weapon's usefulness has been the topic of heated controversy in armed forces and security communities since it was originally disclosed in the past decade.
A recent analysis by a American military analysis unit stated: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would give Russia a distinctive armament with intercontinental range capability."
Yet, as a global defence think tank noted the identical period, Russia encounters major obstacles in achieving operational status.
"Its induction into the country's arsenal likely depends not only on resolving the significant development hurdle of guaranteeing the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," analysts wrote.
"There have been numerous flight-test failures, and a mishap causing several deaths."
A defence publication cited in the analysis states the projectile has a operational radius of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing "the projectile to be based throughout the nation and still be equipped to strike goals in the continental US."
The same journal also says the projectile can operate as low as 50 to 100 metres above ground, making it difficult for aerial protection systems to intercept.
The weapon, referred to as an operational name by a Western alliance, is considered propelled by a nuclear reactor, which is designed to engage after initial propulsion units have propelled it into the atmosphere.
An inquiry by a media outlet recently located a facility a considerable distance from the city as the possible firing point of the armament.
Employing satellite imagery from the recent past, an expert told the service he had detected nine horizontal launch pads in development at the facility.
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