Russia Announces Successful Test of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Weapon

Russia has tested the reactor-driven Burevestnik cruise missile, according to the state's senior general.

"We have launched a multi-hour flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it covered a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Chief of General Staff the general reported to President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.

The terrain-hugging prototype missile, first announced in 2018, has been hailed as having a potentially unlimited range and the capacity to bypass anti-missile technology.

Foreign specialists have in the past questioned over the projectile's tactical importance and Russian claims of having effectively trialed it.

The president said that a "last accomplished trial" of the armament had been carried out in the previous year, but the assertion lacked outside validation. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, only two had partial success since the mid-2010s, as per an disarmament advocacy body.

The general said the weapon was in the air for fifteen hours during the evaluation on October 21.

He noted the projectile's ascent and directional control were assessed and were confirmed as meeting requirements, as per a local reporting service.

"As a result, it demonstrated high capabilities to bypass defensive networks," the outlet reported the commander as saying.

The missile's utility has been the focus of heated controversy in armed forces and security communities since it was initially revealed in recent years.

A previous study by a American military analysis unit determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would provide the nation a unique weapon with intercontinental range capability."

However, as an international strategic institute observed the identical period, Russia confronts major obstacles in achieving operational status.

"Its integration into the state's arsenal arguably hinges not only on surmounting the significant development hurdle of guaranteeing the consistent operation of the nuclear-propulsion unit," analysts stated.

"There occurred several flawed evaluations, and an accident causing multiple fatalities."

A defence publication cited in the report asserts the weapon has a operational radius of between a substantial span, allowing "the weapon to be deployed across the country and still be capable to strike objectives in the continental US."

The corresponding source also explains the projectile can fly as close to the ground as 164 to 328 feet above the surface, causing complexity for defensive networks to intercept.

The weapon, referred to as an operational name by a foreign security organization, is thought to be powered by a reactor system, which is supposed to activate after initial propulsion units have propelled it into the atmosphere.

An investigation by a news agency last year located a facility a considerable distance north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the weapon.

Employing space-based photos from August 2024, an analyst told the outlet he had identified several deployment sites under construction at the site.

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