Moscow Announces Accomplished Test of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Cruise Missile
Moscow has trialed the nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, as stated by the country's top military official.
"We have launched a extended flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it covered a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official the general told the head of state in a broadcast conference.
The low-altitude experimental weapon, initially revealed in 2018, has been hailed as having a possible global reach and the capacity to avoid missile defences.
Foreign specialists have previously cast doubt over the projectile's tactical importance and Moscow's assertions of having effectively trialed it.
The head of state stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the armament had been conducted in last year, but the claim was not externally confirmed. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, merely a pair had moderate achievement since 2016, as per an non-proliferation organization.
The general stated the missile was in the sky for fifteen hours during the evaluation on October 21.
He explained the projectile's ascent and directional control were tested and were confirmed as complying with standards, based on a local reporting service.
"Therefore, it displayed advanced abilities to evade anti-missile and aerial protection," the outlet reported the commander as saying.
The weapon's usefulness has been the subject of vigorous discussion in armed forces and security communities since it was initially revealed in recent years.
A recent analysis by a foreign defence research body concluded: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would provide the nation a singular system with global strike capacity."
Nonetheless, as a foreign policy research organization noted the corresponding time, Moscow faces considerable difficulties in achieving operational status.
"Its induction into the country's arsenal likely depends not only on overcoming the significant development hurdle of securing the reliable performance of the reactor drive mechanism," specialists noted.
"There have been numerous flight-test failures, and an incident resulting in several deaths."
A armed forces periodical referenced in the study asserts the projectile has a flight distance of between a substantial span, enabling "the weapon to be based across the country and still be able to reach goals in the United States mainland."
The identical publication also says the missile can operate as at minimal altitude as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, rendering it challenging for defensive networks to intercept.
The projectile, designated an operational name by a Western alliance, is considered powered by a reactor system, which is intended to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the sky.
An examination by a news agency the previous year pinpointed a location 475km from the city as the likely launch site of the missile.
Using satellite imagery from last summer, an expert told the agency he had observed nine horizontal launch pads being built at the facility.
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