Moscow Confirms Accomplished Evaluation of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Missile
Moscow has trialed the atomic-propelled Burevestnik strategic weapon, as stated by the state's leading commander.
"We have executed a extended flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traveled a vast distance, which is not the maximum," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.
The low-altitude experimental weapon, initially revealed in recent years, has been described as having a potentially unlimited range and the ability to evade anti-missile technology.
Western experts have in the past questioned over the missile's strategic value and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.
The national leader stated that a "final successful test" of the missile had been carried out in the previous year, but the statement could not be independently verified. Of at least 13 known tests, merely a pair had partial success since the mid-2010s, according to an non-proliferation organization.
Gen Gerasimov reported the weapon was in the sky for 15 hours during the evaluation on 21 October.
He noted the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were tested and were confirmed as complying with standards, according to a national news agency.
"Therefore, it exhibited high capabilities to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency quoted the general as saying.
The projectile's application has been the focus of intense debate in armed forces and security communities since it was first announced in 2018.
A recent analysis by a US Air Force intelligence center determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would offer Moscow a singular system with global strike capacity."
However, as an international strategic institute noted the corresponding time, Russia faces significant challenges in achieving operational status.
"Its entry into the state's stockpile potentially relies not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the consistent operation of the nuclear-propulsion unit," experts wrote.
"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an incident causing a number of casualties."
A armed forces periodical referenced in the study claims the missile has a flight distance of between 10,000 and 20,000km, permitting "the weapon to be deployed across the country and still be able to reach targets in the American territory."
The identical publication also explains the projectile can fly as close to the ground as 50 to 100 metres above ground, causing complexity for air defences to stop.
The weapon, code-named a specific moniker by a Western alliance, is considered powered by a atomic power source, which is designed to engage after initial propulsion units have sent it into the air.
An inquiry by a reporting service last year pinpointed a site a considerable distance from the city as the probable deployment area of the weapon.
Using orbital photographs from the recent past, an analyst told the outlet he had identified multiple firing positions being built at the facility.
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