Moscow Confirms Successful Evaluation of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Weapon

Moscow has trialed the reactor-driven Burevestnik strategic weapon, as reported by the state's leading commander.

"We have executed a multi-hour flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traveled a 14,000km distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official the general told the head of state in a televised meeting.

The terrain-hugging prototype missile, initially revealed in the past decade, has been portrayed as having a potentially unlimited range and the capability to bypass defensive systems.

Western experts have in the past questioned over the weapon's military utility and the nation's statements of having accomplished its evaluation.

The national leader declared that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the armament had been conducted in 2023, but the assertion lacked outside validation. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, only two had limited accomplishment since several years ago, according to an disarmament advocacy body.

The general said the missile was in the sky for 15 hours during the evaluation on October 21.

He explained the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were evaluated and were found to be meeting requirements, as per a domestic media outlet.

"Consequently, it displayed superior performance to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency quoted the general as saying.

The missile's utility has been the topic of intense debate in military and defence circles since it was first announced in recent years.

A previous study by a American military analysis unit concluded: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would provide the nation a singular system with global strike capacity."

Nonetheless, as a foreign policy research organization noted the identical period, Moscow confronts considerable difficulties in making the weapon viable.

"Its integration into the nation's inventory likely depends not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of guaranteeing the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," experts stated.

"There were numerous flight-test failures, and a mishap resulting in several deaths."

A defence publication cited in the study asserts the projectile has a flight distance of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing "the weapon to be based throughout the nation and still be capable to target goals in the United States mainland."

The same journal also says the projectile can fly as at minimal altitude as a very low elevation above the earth, making it difficult for defensive networks to intercept.

The weapon, referred to as an operational name by an international defence pact, is considered propelled by a reactor system, which is designed to engage after primary launch mechanisms have propelled it into the atmosphere.

An investigation by a media outlet the previous year located a location a considerable distance above the capital as the likely launch site of the missile.

Employing satellite imagery from August 2024, an analyst informed the outlet he had detected nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the location.

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