Russia Reports Effective Test of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Cruise Missile

The nation has evaluated the nuclear-powered Burevestnik strategic weapon, according to the state's top military official.

"We have conducted a multi-hour flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traversed a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov reported to the Russian leader in a broadcast conference.

The low-flying experimental weapon, originally disclosed in 2018, has been described as having a potentially unlimited range and the capability to bypass missile defences.

Foreign specialists have in the past questioned over the missile's strategic value and Moscow's assertions of having successfully tested it.

The national leader declared that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been held in 2023, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had limited accomplishment since the mid-2010s, according to an non-proliferation organization.

The general reported the weapon was in the air for a significant duration during the test on October 21.

He noted the projectile's ascent and directional control were assessed and were confirmed as complying with standards, as per a domestic media outlet.

"Therefore, it demonstrated advanced abilities to evade anti-missile and aerial protection," the media source quoted the official as saying.

The missile's utility has been the focus of heated controversy in military and defence circles since it was originally disclosed in 2018.

A recent analysis by a foreign defence research body stated: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would offer Moscow a distinctive armament with global strike capacity."

However, as an international strategic institute observed the same year, Russia confronts considerable difficulties in developing a functional system.

"Its entry into the state's stockpile potentially relies not only on overcoming the considerable technical challenge of securing the reliable performance of the reactor drive mechanism," specialists stated.

"There were numerous flight-test failures, and an accident leading to a number of casualties."

A military journal referenced in the study claims the weapon has a range of between a substantial span, permitting "the missile to be based throughout the nation and still be able to strike targets in the continental US."

The identical publication also says the weapon can fly as low as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, rendering it challenging for defensive networks to stop.

The projectile, code-named Skyfall by an international defence pact, is considered propelled by a nuclear reactor, which is intended to activate after initial propulsion units have propelled it into the air.

An examination by a news agency last year pinpointed a location 295 miles above the capital as the possible firing point of the missile.

Employing space-based photos from the recent past, an specialist told the service he had observed nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the facility.

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