Russia Reports Accomplished Test of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Cruise Missile
Russia has tested the reactor-driven Burevestnik strategic weapon, as reported by the nation's top military official.
"We have conducted a prolonged flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traversed a 14,000km distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov told the head of state in a televised meeting.
The low-altitude advanced armament, first announced in the past decade, has been described as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capability to evade defensive systems.
Foreign specialists have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and Moscow's assertions of having accomplished its evaluation.
The national leader said that a "last accomplished trial" of the missile had been conducted in 2023, but the statement could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had partial success since several years ago, as per an disarmament advocacy body.
The military leader reported the missile was in the atmosphere for fifteen hours during the test on the specified date.
He explained the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were assessed and were found to be complying with standards, as per a local reporting service.
"Therefore, it demonstrated advanced abilities to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency stated the commander as saying.
The missile's utility has been the focus of vigorous discussion in defence and strategic sectors since it was initially revealed in recent years.
A 2021 report by a American military analysis unit concluded: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would offer Moscow a singular system with intercontinental range capability."
However, as a foreign policy research organization observed the identical period, the nation faces major obstacles in achieving operational status.
"Its induction into the state's arsenal likely depends not only on surmounting the considerable technical challenge of guaranteeing the consistent operation of the reactor drive mechanism," experts wrote.
"There have been numerous flight-test failures, and an accident resulting in a number of casualties."
A military journal quoted in the study asserts the weapon has a flight distance of between 10,000 and 20,000km, permitting "the missile to be stationed across the country and still be capable to target goals in the continental US."
The corresponding source also notes the projectile can travel as low as 50 to 100 metres above the surface, rendering it challenging for air defences to stop.
The missile, code-named an operational name by a foreign security organization, is believed to be driven by a reactor system, which is intended to commence operation after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the air.
An investigation by a reporting service the previous year identified a location 295 miles above the capital as the likely launch site of the armament.
Employing satellite imagery from the recent past, an specialist reported to the agency he had detected multiple firing positions under construction at the facility.
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