Moscow Announces Effective Trial of Atomic-Propelled Burevestnik Cruise Missile

Russia has tested the reactor-driven Burevestnik strategic weapon, as reported by the state's leading commander.

"We have launched a prolonged flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traveled a 14,000km distance, which is not the ultimate range," Senior Military Leader the general informed President Vladimir Putin in a public appearance.

The low-flying experimental weapon, originally disclosed in the past decade, has been portrayed as having a possible global reach and the capability to evade missile defences.

Western experts have previously cast doubt over the weapon's military utility and the nation's statements of having effectively trialed it.

The president stated that a "final successful test" of the weapon had been conducted in the previous year, but the assertion was not externally confirmed. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, merely a pair had partial success since several years ago, according to an non-proliferation organization.

The military leader said the projectile was in the air for fifteen hours during the trial on October 21.

He said the projectile's ascent and directional control were tested and were found to be meeting requirements, as per a domestic media outlet.

"As a result, it exhibited superior performance to bypass defensive networks," the news agency stated the official as saying.

The missile's utility has been the focus of heated controversy in military and defence circles since it was first announced 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 global strike capacity."

Nonetheless, as a global defence think tank observed the corresponding time, Russia confronts significant challenges in achieving operational status.

"Its integration into the nation's inventory likely depends not only on surmounting the significant development hurdle of ensuring the consistent operation of the atomic power system," experts wrote.

"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an accident causing multiple fatalities."

A military journal referenced in the analysis claims the missile has a operational radius of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, allowing "the weapon to be based throughout the nation and still be capable to strike targets in the United States mainland."

The identical publication also notes the projectile can operate as low as a very low elevation above the surface, causing complexity for aerial protection systems to engage.

The weapon, designated a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is believed to be powered by a reactor system, which is intended to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the air.

An inquiry by a media outlet the previous year located a facility a considerable distance above the capital as the likely launch site of the weapon.

Employing orbital photographs from last summer, an analyst informed the service he had identified multiple firing positions under construction at the site.

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