Moscow Reports Effective Test of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Weapon

The nation has evaluated the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, as reported by the nation's leading commander.

"We have launched a multi-hour flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the maximum," Top Army Official the general told the Russian leader in a televised meeting.

The low-flying experimental weapon, first announced in recent years, has been portrayed as having a possible global reach and the capability to evade anti-missile technology.

Western experts have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and Moscow's assertions of having effectively trialed it.

The national leader stated that a "final successful test" of the armament had been carried out in the previous year, but the assertion lacked outside validation. Of at least 13 known tests, just two instances had partial success since 2016, as per an non-proliferation organization.

The military leader reported the weapon was in the sky for 15 hours during the trial on October 21.

He said the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were determined to be meeting requirements, as per a national news agency.

"Consequently, it demonstrated superior performance to bypass anti-missile and aerial protection," the media source reported the official as saying.

The missile's utility has been the focus of heated controversy in military and defence circles since it was originally disclosed in 2018.

A 2021 report by a foreign defence research body concluded: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would provide the nation a unique weapon with intercontinental range capability."

Nonetheless, as a global defence think tank observed the identical period, Moscow faces major obstacles in developing a functional system.

"Its induction into the state's arsenal potentially relies not only on overcoming the considerable technical challenge of securing the reliable performance of the reactor drive mechanism," specialists wrote.

"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an incident causing several deaths."

A armed forces periodical cited in the study asserts the weapon has a range of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing "the projectile to be based anywhere in Russia and still be equipped to target targets in the continental US."

The corresponding source also says the missile can travel as at minimal altitude as 164 to 328 feet above ground, causing complexity for air defences to engage.

The weapon, code-named a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is believed to be propelled by a reactor system, which is supposed to engage after solid fuel rocket boosters have launched it into the atmosphere.

An investigation by a news agency last year identified a facility 295 miles from the city as the likely launch site of the missile.

Employing satellite imagery from the recent past, an expert reported to the agency he had detected multiple firing positions under construction at the site.

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