Russia Confirms Accomplished Test of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Cruise Missile

The nation has evaluated the nuclear-powered Burevestnik strategic weapon, according to the nation's leading commander.

"We have conducted a extended flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traversed a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official the commander told the Russian leader in a televised meeting.

The terrain-hugging advanced armament, first announced in 2018, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capability to avoid defensive systems.

Western experts have previously cast doubt over the missile's strategic value and Moscow's assertions of having successfully tested it.

The head of state declared that a "final successful test" of the missile had been held in the previous year, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, only two had moderate achievement since several years ago, according to an arms control campaign group.

The military leader said the weapon was in the sky for 15 hours during the test on the specified date.

He explained the projectile's ascent and directional control were evaluated and were determined to be meeting requirements, as per a domestic media outlet.

"Therefore, it displayed superior performance to evade missile and air defence systems," the media source quoted the commander as saying.

The missile's utility has been the focus of intense debate in defence and strategic sectors since it was first announced in 2018.

A 2021 report by a American military analysis unit concluded: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a unique weapon with worldwide reach potential."

Yet, as an international strategic institute commented the same year, the nation encounters major obstacles in making the weapon viable.

"Its entry into the country's stockpile potentially relies not only on overcoming the significant development hurdle of guaranteeing the consistent operation of the nuclear-propulsion unit," experts wrote.

"There occurred multiple unsuccessful trials, and an incident leading to a number of casualties."

A defence publication cited in the study asserts the weapon has a operational radius of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, allowing "the projectile to be stationed across the country and still be able to reach objectives in the American territory."

The same journal also says the projectile can travel as at minimal altitude as a very low elevation above the earth, rendering it challenging for aerial protection systems to stop.

The weapon, designated a specific moniker by a Western alliance, is believed to be powered by a reactor system, which is designed to activate after primary launch mechanisms have launched it into the atmosphere.

An investigation by a media outlet the previous year pinpointed a location a considerable distance from the city as the likely launch site of the missile.

Employing satellite imagery from the recent past, an specialist told the outlet he had detected nine horizontal launch pads being built at the site.

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