Moscow Reports Successful Test of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Missile

Moscow has trialed the reactor-driven Burevestnik cruise missile, according to the state's top military official.

"We have executed a extended flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it covered a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official the commander told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.

The low-altitude experimental weapon, initially revealed in 2018, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to evade anti-missile technology.

International analysts have in the past questioned over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The head of state stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been conducted in the previous year, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, only two had limited accomplishment since 2016, based on an non-proliferation organization.

The general said the projectile was in the atmosphere for 15 hours during the trial on October 21.

He said the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were assessed and were confirmed as complying with standards, as per a local reporting service.

"As a result, it exhibited high capabilities to bypass missile and air defence systems," the news agency reported the official as saying.

The weapon's usefulness has been the topic of intense debate in defence and strategic sectors since it was initially revealed in 2018.

A 2021 report by a foreign defence research body concluded: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a unique weapon with worldwide reach potential."

Yet, as an international strategic institute noted the corresponding time, Russia confronts considerable difficulties in making the weapon viable.

"Its entry into the nation's inventory potentially relies not only on resolving the considerable technical challenge of guaranteeing the reliable performance of the nuclear-propulsion unit," specialists noted.

"There occurred several flawed evaluations, and an incident resulting in a number of casualties."

A armed forces periodical referenced in the study asserts the weapon has a operational radius of between a substantial span, permitting "the missile to be stationed across the country and still be able to strike goals in the continental US."

The corresponding source also notes the weapon can travel as low as a very low elevation above ground, causing complexity for defensive networks to engage.

The missile, referred to as an operational name by an international defence pact, is thought to be driven by a nuclear reactor, which is supposed to activate after initial propulsion units have launched it into the sky.

An investigation by a reporting service recently located a site a considerable distance above the capital as the possible firing point of the weapon.

Utilizing satellite imagery from last summer, an expert reported to the agency he had detected nine horizontal launch pads in development at the site.

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