Russia Announces Accomplished Trial of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Weapon
Moscow has trialed the nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, as stated by the country's top military official.
"We have launched a prolonged flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Chief of General Staff the general informed President Vladimir Putin in a public appearance.
The low-flying advanced armament, originally disclosed in 2018, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capacity to evade defensive systems.
Western experts have previously cast doubt over the projectile's tactical importance and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.
The head of state said that a "last accomplished trial" of the missile had been held in 2023, but the assertion lacked outside validation. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, just two instances had moderate achievement since 2016, based on an arms control campaign group.
The military leader stated the missile was in the atmosphere for 15 hours during the trial on the specified date.
He said the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were assessed and were found to be meeting requirements, as per a local reporting service.
"As a result, it displayed high capabilities to bypass missile and air defence systems," the news agency stated the general as saying.
The missile's utility has been the topic of heated controversy in defence and strategic sectors since it was originally disclosed in 2018.
A 2021 report by a foreign defence research body stated: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a singular system with global strike capacity."
Yet, as an international strategic institute observed the same year, Russia encounters considerable difficulties in developing a functional system.
"Its entry into the state's inventory likely depends not only on resolving the substantial engineering obstacle of securing the reliable performance of the reactor drive mechanism," specialists wrote.
"There have been numerous flight-test failures, and a mishap causing a number of casualties."
A defence publication referenced in the analysis states the projectile has a range of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, allowing "the missile to be deployed across the country and still be equipped to target goals in the continental US."
The same journal also says the weapon can fly as at minimal altitude as a very low elevation above the surface, causing complexity for air defences to engage.
The projectile, referred to as an operational name by an international defence pact, is thought to be driven by a reactor system, which is designed to commence operation after solid fuel rocket boosters have launched it into the air.
An investigation by a reporting service the previous year pinpointed a location 475km from the city as the probable deployment area of the weapon.
Using orbital photographs from August 2024, an specialist informed the service he had observed multiple firing positions in development at the location.
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