Moscow Announces Successful Trial of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Missile
The nation has evaluated the atomic-propelled Burevestnik cruise missile, according to the country's leading commander.
"We have launched a multi-hour flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traveled a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official the general informed President Vladimir Putin in a broadcast conference.
The low-flying experimental weapon, initially revealed in the past decade, has been described as having a possible global reach and the capacity to bypass missile defences.
Western experts have in the past questioned over the projectile's tactical importance and Moscow's assertions of having successfully tested it.
The national leader declared that a "last accomplished trial" of the weapon had been conducted in 2023, but the statement could not be independently verified. Of at least 13 known tests, only two had limited accomplishment since 2016, based on an non-proliferation organization.
Gen Gerasimov said the weapon was in the atmosphere for fifteen hours during the test on the specified date.
He said the projectile's ascent and directional control were assessed and were confirmed as meeting requirements, as per a domestic media outlet.
"Consequently, it displayed superior performance to evade anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency stated the general as saying.
The projectile's application has been the topic of vigorous discussion in defence and strategic sectors since it was initially revealed in recent years.
A recent analysis by a foreign defence research body stated: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would give Russia a singular system with intercontinental range capability."
Nonetheless, as an international strategic institute noted the same year, Moscow faces major obstacles in making the weapon viable.
"Its induction into the nation's inventory potentially relies not only on overcoming the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the consistent operation of the nuclear-propulsion unit," experts noted.
"There were numerous flight-test failures, and an incident causing multiple fatalities."
A armed forces periodical cited in the study claims the weapon has a operational radius of between a substantial span, allowing "the missile to be based across the country and still be equipped to strike objectives in the continental US."
The same journal also notes the weapon can travel as close to the ground as a very low elevation above the earth, rendering it challenging for aerial protection systems to stop.
The missile, code-named Skyfall by a Western alliance, is thought to be driven by a atomic power source, which is supposed to engage after initial propulsion units have launched it into the sky.
An investigation by a news agency last year identified a facility a considerable distance from the city as the probable deployment area of the weapon.
Employing orbital photographs from last summer, an specialist reported to the agency he had detected several deployment sites under construction at the site.
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