Russia Reports Effective Trial of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Weapon
Russia has tested the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, as stated by the nation's top military official.
"We have conducted a extended flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Chief of General Staff the general told the Russian leader in a public appearance.
The terrain-hugging advanced armament, initially revealed in 2018, has been hailed as having a possible global reach and the capacity to bypass anti-missile technology.
Foreign specialists have earlier expressed skepticism over the projectile's tactical importance and the nation's statements of having successfully tested it.
The president said that a "last accomplished trial" of the missile had been carried out in the previous year, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of at least 13 known tests, merely a pair had moderate achievement since the mid-2010s, according to an disarmament advocacy body.
The general stated the projectile was in the atmosphere for 15 hours during the test on 21 October.
He noted the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were tested and were confirmed as meeting requirements, as per a local reporting service.
"Therefore, it displayed advanced abilities to evade defensive networks," the media source stated the general as saying.
The missile's utility has been the topic of vigorous discussion in defence and strategic sectors since it was first announced in recent years.
A 2021 report by a foreign defence research body determined: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would provide the nation a singular system with intercontinental range capability."
However, as a global defence think tank commented the corresponding time, Russia encounters considerable difficulties in achieving operational status.
"Its entry into the state's stockpile likely depends not only on surmounting the considerable technical challenge of securing the dependable functioning of the atomic power system," experts stated.
"There have been multiple unsuccessful trials, and an accident causing several deaths."
A defence publication quoted in the analysis states the missile has a range of between 10,000 and 20,000km, enabling "the missile to be stationed anywhere in Russia and still be capable to strike goals in the United States mainland."
The same journal also says the missile can travel as at minimal altitude as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, causing complexity for aerial protection systems to intercept.
The projectile, code-named a specific moniker by a Western alliance, is considered driven by a reactor system, which is intended to engage after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the air.
An inquiry by a media outlet recently pinpointed a location 475km north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the armament.
Using satellite imagery from August 2024, an analyst told the outlet he had detected multiple firing positions in development at the facility.
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