Moscow Announces Successful Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Missile

The nation has evaluated the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, as reported by the nation's top military official.

"We have launched a multi-hour flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traversed a 14,000km distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin in a broadcast conference.

The low-altitude advanced armament, originally disclosed in the past decade, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capability to evade anti-missile technology.

Western experts have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and the nation's statements of having accomplished its evaluation.

The head of state declared that a "last accomplished trial" of the armament had been carried out in last year, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had limited accomplishment since 2016, as per an disarmament advocacy body.

The military leader stated the weapon was in the sky for a significant duration during the evaluation on October 21.

He noted the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were tested and were found to be meeting requirements, as per a domestic media outlet.

"Consequently, it displayed advanced abilities to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the outlet stated the general as saying.

The weapon's usefulness has been the topic of heated controversy in military and defence circles since it was originally disclosed in 2018.

A previous study by a American military analysis unit stated: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would offer Moscow a distinctive armament with global strike capacity."

Nonetheless, as a foreign policy research organization noted the corresponding time, Moscow faces major obstacles in achieving operational status.

"Its entry into the country's inventory potentially relies not only on resolving the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," experts wrote.

"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and a mishap resulting in several deaths."

A military journal cited in the analysis claims the projectile has a flight distance of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, enabling "the projectile to be based across the country and still be capable to strike objectives in the United States mainland."

The same journal also says the weapon can travel as close to the ground as 50 to 100 metres above the earth, rendering it challenging for air defences to stop.

The projectile, code-named Skyfall by an international defence pact, is considered propelled by a nuclear reactor, which is designed to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the air.

An investigation by a news agency the previous year identified a site a considerable distance above the capital as the likely launch site of the weapon.

Utilizing satellite imagery from last summer, an analyst reported to the outlet he had observed several deployment sites under construction at the site.

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