Moscow Confirms Successful Trial of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Missile

Russia has tested the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the country's senior general.

"We have executed a extended flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traveled a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the ultimate range," Senior Military Leader the general informed President Vladimir Putin in a broadcast conference.

The terrain-hugging prototype missile, initially revealed in recent years, has been described as having a potentially unlimited range and the ability to avoid defensive systems.

Western experts have in the past questioned over the missile's strategic value and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The president said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the weapon had been held in last year, but the claim was not externally confirmed. Of at least 13 known tests, only two had partial success since the mid-2010s, as per an arms control campaign group.

The military leader stated the weapon was in the air for 15 hours during the trial on October 21.

He noted the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were found to be up to specification, according to a domestic media outlet.

"As a result, it exhibited high capabilities to bypass defensive networks," the news agency stated the commander as saying.

The projectile's application has been the subject of vigorous discussion in military and defence circles since it was originally disclosed in the past decade.

A previous study by a American military analysis unit determined: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would offer Moscow a unique weapon with global strike capacity."

Nonetheless, as a global defence think tank commented the corresponding time, the nation confronts considerable difficulties in achieving operational status.

"Its entry into the country's stockpile likely depends not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the reliable performance of the atomic power system," analysts noted.

"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an incident resulting in a number of casualties."

A armed forces periodical cited in the analysis states the weapon has a range of between 10,000 and 20,000km, enabling "the missile to be deployed throughout the nation and still be capable to target targets in the continental US."

The identical publication also explains the projectile can fly as close to the ground as 164 to 328 feet above the surface, rendering it challenging for aerial protection systems to stop.

The projectile, referred to as a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is considered driven by a atomic power source, which is supposed to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the atmosphere.

An investigation by a news agency last year located a location a considerable distance north of Moscow as the possible firing point of the weapon.

Utilizing orbital photographs from August 2024, an analyst told the outlet he had observed multiple firing positions under construction at the site.

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