Russia Confirms Successful Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Cruise Missile

Moscow has trialed the atomic-propelled Burevestnik cruise missile, as reported by the country's top military official.

"We have launched a multi-hour flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traveled a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the limit," Senior Military Leader Valery Gerasimov told the Russian leader in a broadcast conference.

The low-altitude advanced armament, initially revealed in recent years, has been portrayed as having a potentially unlimited range and the capacity to evade anti-missile technology.

International analysts have previously cast doubt over the missile's strategic value and the nation's statements of having successfully tested it.

The president declared that a "final successful test" of the weapon had been held in the previous year, but the statement lacked outside validation. Of at least 13 known tests, merely a pair had limited accomplishment since several years ago, according to an non-proliferation organization.

The military leader reported the weapon was in the atmosphere for fifteen hours during the test on the specified date.

He explained the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were determined to be complying with standards, according to a local reporting service.

"Therefore, it displayed advanced abilities to evade anti-missile and aerial protection," the outlet reported the official as saying.

The weapon's usefulness has been the subject of intense debate in armed forces and security communities since it was originally disclosed in recent years.

A previous study by a US Air Force intelligence center determined: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would provide the nation a singular system with worldwide reach potential."

Yet, as a foreign policy research organization commented the same year, Moscow faces major obstacles in developing a functional system.

"Its induction into the nation's arsenal likely depends not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of guaranteeing the reliable performance of the reactor drive mechanism," specialists noted.

"There were several flawed evaluations, and an incident causing multiple fatalities."

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 based throughout the nation and still be equipped to target targets in the American territory."

The same journal also notes the weapon can fly as low as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, rendering it challenging for defensive networks to engage.

The projectile, designated a specific moniker by a Western alliance, is thought to be powered by a reactor system, which is intended to engage after initial propulsion units have propelled it into the air.

An inquiry by a reporting service the previous year pinpointed a facility a considerable distance north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the armament.

Employing space-based photos from August 2024, an analyst informed the outlet he had observed several deployment sites under construction at the facility.

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