Russia Announces Effective Test of Atomic-Propelled Burevestnik Cruise Missile
The nation has evaluated the atomic-propelled Burevestnik long-range missile, as reported by the state's senior general.
"We have conducted a extended flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin in a broadcast conference.
The low-flying prototype missile, initially revealed in the past decade, has been described as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to bypass missile defences.
Foreign specialists have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and Moscow's assertions of having effectively trialed it.
The president declared that a "last accomplished trial" of the armament had been conducted in the previous year, but the claim was not externally confirmed. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, only two had partial success since several years ago, according to an disarmament advocacy body.
The general stated the weapon was in the air for fifteen hours during the evaluation on October 21.
He noted the projectile's ascent and directional control were evaluated and were confirmed as up to specification, based on a national news agency.
"As a result, it demonstrated superior performance to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the outlet reported the general as saying.
The missile's utility has been the subject of heated controversy in defence and strategic sectors since it was first announced in 2018.
A previous study by a US Air Force intelligence center stated: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would provide the nation a unique weapon with global strike capacity."
However, as a global defence think tank commented the same year, Moscow confronts major obstacles in developing a functional system.
"Its induction into the nation's arsenal potentially relies not only on surmounting the significant development hurdle of ensuring the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," specialists noted.
"There have been numerous flight-test failures, and an accident causing multiple fatalities."
A armed forces periodical quoted in the analysis asserts the projectile has a operational radius of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing "the missile to be deployed throughout the nation and still be capable to reach objectives in the United States mainland."
The corresponding source also explains the projectile can operate as at minimal altitude as a very low elevation above the surface, making it difficult for defensive networks to intercept.
The projectile, designated an operational name by a Western alliance, is considered driven by a reactor system, which is designed to activate after initial propulsion units have sent it into the sky.
An investigation by a reporting service last year pinpointed a location 295 miles above the capital as the probable deployment area of the missile.
Employing orbital photographs from last summer, an analyst reported to the agency he had observed multiple firing positions in development at the site.
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