Moscow Reports Effective Evaluation of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Missile
The nation has evaluated the atomic-propelled Burevestnik cruise missile, as reported by the nation's top military official.
"We have conducted a prolonged flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traversed a 14,000km distance, which is not the maximum," Top Army Official the general told President Vladimir Putin in a broadcast conference.
The low-flying prototype missile, initially revealed in 2018, has been portrayed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capacity to evade defensive systems.
International analysts have earlier expressed skepticism over the projectile's tactical importance and Russian claims of having accomplished its evaluation.
The national leader said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the weapon had been conducted in 2023, but the assertion was not externally confirmed. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had limited accomplishment since the mid-2010s, based on an disarmament advocacy body.
Gen Gerasimov reported the weapon was in the air for fifteen hours during the test on October 21.
He noted the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were tested and were found to be meeting requirements, as per a national news agency.
"As a result, it displayed advanced abilities to circumvent defensive networks," the media source quoted the official as saying.
The missile's utility has been the subject of intense debate in military and defence circles since it was initially revealed in recent years.
A 2021 report by a foreign defence research body concluded: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would provide the nation a singular system with global strike capacity."
Nonetheless, as an international strategic institute observed the corresponding time, the nation confronts major obstacles in achieving operational status.
"Its induction into the nation's stockpile arguably hinges not only on resolving the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the consistent operation of the atomic power system," specialists stated.
"There were several flawed evaluations, and an accident resulting in multiple fatalities."
A armed forces periodical cited in the analysis asserts the missile has a operational radius of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing "the projectile to be deployed across the country and still be able to strike targets in the continental US."
The corresponding source also notes the projectile can operate as close to the ground as 164 to 328 feet above ground, causing complexity for air defences to stop.
The projectile, designated a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is believed to be powered by a atomic power source, which is designed to activate after primary launch mechanisms have sent it into the atmosphere.
An inquiry by a media outlet the previous year identified a site a considerable distance above the capital as the possible firing point of the weapon.
Employing orbital photographs from August 2024, an specialist informed the outlet he had detected nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the site.
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