Moscow Confirms Accomplished Trial of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Missile

The nation has evaluated the atomic-propelled Burevestnik cruise missile, according to the state's leading commander.

"We have executed a extended flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it covered a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Chief of General Staff the general told the head of state in a broadcast conference.

The low-flying prototype missile, first announced in 2018, has been portrayed as having a potentially unlimited range and the ability to evade anti-missile technology.

Foreign specialists have previously cast doubt over the projectile's tactical importance and Russian claims of having accomplished its evaluation.

The president declared that a "final successful test" of the missile had been conducted in last year, but the statement could not be independently verified. Of at least 13 known tests, just two instances had moderate achievement since several years ago, based on an non-proliferation organization.

Gen Gerasimov said the projectile was in the atmosphere for fifteen hours during the trial on 21 October.

He explained the projectile's ascent and directional control were tested and were found to be meeting requirements, according to a local reporting service.

"Therefore, it displayed advanced abilities to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency quoted the general as saying.

The missile's utility has been the topic of heated controversy in armed forces and security communities since it was first announced in the past decade.

A 2021 report by a US Air Force intelligence center determined: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would offer Moscow a distinctive armament with global strike capacity."

Yet, as an international strategic institute observed the same year, Moscow encounters significant challenges in making the weapon viable.

"Its induction into the country's stockpile potentially relies not only on resolving the significant development hurdle of securing the reliable performance of the nuclear-propulsion unit," specialists stated.

"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an accident resulting in a number of casualties."

A armed forces periodical quoted in the analysis claims the missile has a flight distance of between 10,000 and 20,000km, enabling "the projectile to be stationed across the country and still be equipped to target goals in the continental US."

The same journal also explains the projectile can travel as at minimal altitude as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, making it difficult for aerial protection systems to engage.

The weapon, designated a specific moniker by an international defence pact, is thought to be powered by a atomic power source, which is intended to engage after solid fuel rocket boosters have sent it into the sky.

An examination by a reporting service last year located a site 475km above the capital as the possible firing point of the armament.

Employing satellite imagery from the recent past, an analyst told the agency he had detected nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the site.

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