Russia Announces Effective Evaluation of Atomic-Propelled Burevestnik Cruise Missile
Moscow has trialed the reactor-driven Burevestnik cruise missile, as stated by the nation's top military official.
"We have executed a extended flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traveled a 14,000km distance, which is not the maximum," Chief of General Staff the commander told the Russian leader in a public appearance.
The terrain-hugging experimental weapon, initially revealed in the past decade, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capability to avoid anti-missile technology.
Western experts have in the past questioned over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.
The president declared that a "last accomplished trial" of the weapon had been conducted in last year, but the assertion was not externally confirmed. Of at least 13 known tests, only two had limited accomplishment since several years ago, as per an disarmament advocacy body.
The military leader said the weapon was in the sky for fifteen hours during the evaluation on the specified date.
He explained the projectile's ascent and directional control were assessed and were determined to be complying with standards, as per a national news agency.
"As a result, it exhibited superior performance to evade defensive networks," the news agency quoted the commander as saying.
The projectile's application has been the subject of intense debate in armed forces and security communities since it was originally disclosed in recent years.
A 2021 report by a foreign defence research body determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would offer Moscow a singular system with global strike capacity."
Nonetheless, as a foreign policy research organization observed the identical period, Moscow encounters considerable difficulties in achieving operational status.
"Its integration into the nation's arsenal likely depends not only on resolving the considerable technical challenge of ensuring the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," specialists noted.
"There occurred multiple unsuccessful trials, and an incident resulting in several deaths."
A defence publication quoted in the study claims the weapon has a flight distance of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing "the missile to be deployed throughout the nation and still be able to strike goals in the American territory."
The same journal also explains the missile can travel as close to the ground as 50 to 100 metres above ground, causing complexity for aerial protection systems to stop.
The weapon, referred to as a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is considered powered by a nuclear reactor, which is designed to commence operation after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the air.
An inquiry by a media outlet recently located a location 295 miles above the capital as the possible firing point of the weapon.
Employing satellite imagery from the recent past, an specialist told the outlet he had observed nine horizontal launch pads being built at the facility.
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