Russia Announces Effective Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Weapon

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

"We have executed a multi-hour flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it covered a 14,000km distance, which is not the limit," Senior Military Leader Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin in a public appearance.

The terrain-hugging prototype missile, initially revealed in the past decade, has been described as having a potentially unlimited range and the ability to avoid anti-missile technology.

Foreign specialists have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The national leader said that a "final successful test" of the weapon had been conducted in the previous year, but the claim lacked outside validation. Of at least 13 known tests, merely a pair had moderate achievement since several years ago, as per an arms control campaign group.

The general stated the missile was in the sky for fifteen hours during the trial on the specified date.

He noted the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were confirmed as meeting requirements, based on a domestic media outlet.

"Therefore, it exhibited superior performance to circumvent defensive networks," the news agency quoted the commander as saying.

The projectile's application has been the topic of intense debate in defence and strategic sectors since it was originally disclosed in the past decade.

A previous study by a US Air Force intelligence center stated: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would give Russia a unique weapon with global strike capacity."

Nonetheless, as an international strategic institute observed the corresponding time, Moscow faces considerable difficulties in making the weapon viable.

"Its induction into the nation's inventory arguably hinges not only on overcoming the significant development hurdle of guaranteeing the dependable functioning of the atomic power system," experts stated.

"There have been multiple unsuccessful trials, and an accident causing a number of casualties."

A armed forces periodical quoted in the report states the weapon has a operational radius of between a substantial span, enabling "the projectile to be stationed across the country and still be able to target targets in the United States mainland."

The same journal also says the projectile can fly as close to the ground as a very low elevation above the earth, causing complexity for aerial protection systems to stop.

The missile, referred to as Skyfall by a foreign security organization, is thought to be propelled by a reactor system, which is supposed to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have launched it into the sky.

An inquiry by a media outlet last year located a location a considerable distance north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the missile.

Utilizing orbital photographs from August 2024, an specialist informed the agency he had identified multiple firing positions being built at the location.

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