Moscow Reports Successful Trial of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Missile

Moscow has trialed the reactor-driven Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the country's top military official.

"We have executed a multi-hour flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it covered a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the maximum," Senior Military Leader Valery Gerasimov reported to the head of state in a broadcast conference.

The terrain-hugging experimental weapon, originally disclosed in 2018, has been described as having a possible global reach and the capability to avoid defensive systems.

Foreign specialists have in the past questioned over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having effectively trialed it.

The national leader stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the weapon had been held in last year, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, merely a pair had partial success since several years ago, based on an disarmament advocacy body.

The military leader said the projectile was in the air for a significant duration during the trial on 21 October.

He said the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were found to be complying with standards, according to a domestic media outlet.

"Therefore, it displayed superior performance to evade defensive networks," the media source stated the official as saying.

The weapon's usefulness has been the topic of intense debate in defence and strategic sectors since it was initially revealed in recent years.

A previous study by a US Air Force intelligence center concluded: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a unique weapon with global strike capacity."

However, as an international strategic institute observed the corresponding time, Russia confronts considerable difficulties in making the weapon viable.

"Its induction into the state's stockpile arguably hinges not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of securing the dependable functioning of the reactor drive mechanism," experts wrote.

"There have been multiple unsuccessful trials, and an accident resulting in multiple fatalities."

A military journal referenced in the study claims the missile has a range of between a substantial span, allowing "the weapon to be based across the country and still be capable to strike targets in the continental US."

The identical publication also says the weapon can travel as low as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, causing complexity for defensive networks to stop.

The weapon, code-named Skyfall by a Western alliance, is thought to be powered by a reactor system, which is designed to commence operation after initial propulsion units have launched it into the atmosphere.

An examination by a media outlet recently pinpointed a facility 295 miles above the capital as the probable deployment area of the missile.

Employing satellite imagery from August 2024, an specialist reported to the outlet he had observed several deployment sites being built at the site.

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