Russia Reports Successful Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Missile
Russia has tested the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the country's senior general.
"We have conducted a prolonged flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traveled a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official the commander told the head of state in a televised meeting.
The low-flying prototype missile, originally disclosed in 2018, has been hailed as having a possible global reach and the capacity to bypass missile defences.
Foreign specialists have previously cast doubt over the weapon's military utility and the nation's statements of having effectively trialed it.
The national leader said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been carried out in last year, but the claim could not be independently verified. Of at least 13 known tests, just two instances had partial success since several years ago, as per an disarmament advocacy body.
The military leader stated the missile was in the sky for 15 hours during the evaluation on the specified date.
He explained the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were assessed and were found to be meeting requirements, according to a national news agency.
"Therefore, it exhibited high capabilities to evade missile and air defence systems," the outlet reported the official as saying.
The projectile's application has been the topic of heated controversy in armed forces and security communities since it was originally disclosed in recent years.
A previous study by a foreign defence research body stated: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would provide the nation a unique weapon with global strike capacity."
Nonetheless, as a foreign policy research organization observed the corresponding time, Russia encounters major obstacles in making the weapon viable.
"Its integration into the state's stockpile potentially relies not only on surmounting the considerable technical challenge of securing the consistent operation of the reactor drive mechanism," experts stated.
"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an incident leading to several deaths."
A armed forces periodical quoted in the analysis asserts the missile has a range of between 10,000 and 20,000km, permitting "the missile to be stationed throughout the nation and still be capable to reach objectives in the continental US."
The identical publication also notes the missile can travel as low as 50 to 100 metres above ground, causing complexity for defensive networks to stop.
The missile, designated an operational name by an international defence pact, is believed to be driven by a nuclear reactor, which is intended to activate after primary launch mechanisms have propelled it into the sky.
An inquiry by a reporting service recently pinpointed a site a considerable distance from the city as the possible firing point of the weapon.
Employing space-based photos from the recent past, an expert told the agency he had detected nine horizontal launch pads in development at the site.
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