Moscow Confirms Effective Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Weapon

Russia has tested the atomic-propelled Burevestnik cruise missile, as reported by the state's top military official.

"We have conducted a multi-hour flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it covered a vast distance, which is not the maximum," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov informed President Vladimir Putin in a public appearance.

The low-altitude advanced armament, initially revealed in 2018, has been described as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capability to avoid missile defences.

International analysts have earlier expressed skepticism over the missile's strategic value and Moscow's assertions of having successfully tested it.

The national leader said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been conducted in last year, but the statement lacked outside validation. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had moderate achievement since several years ago, as per an disarmament advocacy body.

The general stated the projectile was in the sky for a significant duration during the evaluation on October 21.

He noted the projectile's ascent and directional control were evaluated and were confirmed as up to specification, according to a domestic media outlet.

"Consequently, it demonstrated high capabilities to evade anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency stated the commander as saying.

The missile's utility has been the topic of vigorous discussion in armed forces and security communities since it was initially revealed in the past decade.

A recent analysis by a foreign defence research body determined: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would give Russia a singular system with global strike capacity."

Nonetheless, as an international strategic institute noted the corresponding time, the nation faces considerable difficulties in making the weapon viable.

"Its integration into the nation's inventory likely depends not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of securing the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," specialists noted.

"There have been numerous flight-test failures, and a mishap leading to multiple fatalities."

A armed forces periodical cited in the report asserts the projectile has a flight distance of between 10,000 and 20,000km, permitting "the projectile to be deployed anywhere in Russia and still be equipped to strike objectives in the United States mainland."

The corresponding source also explains the missile can fly as low as 50 to 100 metres above the surface, causing complexity for aerial protection systems to engage.

The missile, code-named a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is thought to be driven by a reactor system, which is supposed to commence operation after solid fuel rocket boosters have sent it into the atmosphere.

An inquiry by a news agency recently identified a location 475km north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the missile.

Using orbital photographs from the recent past, an specialist informed the outlet he had identified nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the site.

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