Russia Announces Accomplished Test of Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Weapon

Moscow has trialed the reactor-driven Burevestnik strategic weapon, as reported by the state's top military official.

"We have conducted a extended flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traveled a 14,000km distance, which is not the limit," Senior Military Leader the commander informed President Vladimir Putin in a public appearance.

The terrain-hugging advanced armament, first announced in the past decade, has been described as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capability to bypass defensive systems.

Foreign specialists have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The national leader said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been carried out in the previous year, but the assertion lacked outside validation. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had partial success since 2016, based on an non-proliferation organization.

The military leader stated the weapon was in the sky for fifteen hours during the trial on the specified date.

He said the projectile's ascent and directional control were tested and were determined to be meeting requirements, according to a local reporting service.

"As a result, it displayed advanced abilities to evade defensive networks," the media source quoted the commander as saying.

The missile's utility has been the focus of intense debate in military and defence circles since it was initially revealed in recent years.

A previous study by a American military analysis unit stated: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would offer Moscow a unique weapon with global strike capacity."

Nonetheless, as a global defence think tank observed the same year, Moscow confronts major obstacles in achieving operational status.

"Its entry into the country's inventory arguably hinges not only on resolving the substantial engineering obstacle of guaranteeing the reliable performance of the nuclear-propulsion unit," analysts wrote.

"There occurred multiple unsuccessful trials, and an incident causing several deaths."

A armed forces periodical quoted in the report claims the weapon has a operational radius of between a substantial span, allowing "the missile to be stationed across the country and still be capable to strike goals in the United States mainland."

The identical publication also says the missile can operate as close to the ground as 50 to 100 metres above the surface, making it difficult for air defences to intercept.

The missile, code-named Skyfall by a foreign security organization, is considered propelled by a nuclear reactor, which is intended to commence operation after primary launch mechanisms have launched it into the sky.

An investigation by a media outlet recently pinpointed a facility 475km from the city as the probable deployment area of the missile.

Utilizing space-based photos from last summer, an analyst reported to the service he had observed nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the site.

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