Russia Reports Successful Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Missile

The nation has evaluated the atomic-propelled Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the country's senior general.

"We have conducted a multi-hour flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traveled a 14,000km distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official the general informed the Russian leader in a televised meeting.

The low-altitude experimental weapon, first announced in recent years, has been portrayed as having a potentially unlimited range and the ability to avoid anti-missile technology.

Western experts have in the past questioned over the weapon's military utility and Moscow's assertions of having accomplished its evaluation.

The head of state said that a "last accomplished trial" of the missile had been carried out in the previous year, but the assertion was not externally confirmed. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, merely a pair had partial success since 2016, as per an non-proliferation organization.

The general reported the missile was in the sky for fifteen hours during the evaluation on the specified date.

He explained the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were tested and were found to be up to specification, based on a national news agency.

"Consequently, it exhibited high capabilities to bypass anti-missile and aerial protection," the outlet reported the commander as saying.

The projectile's application has been the topic of heated controversy in military and defence circles since it was initially revealed in recent years.

A previous study by a American military analysis unit stated: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would give Russia a unique weapon with global strike capacity."

However, as a foreign policy research organization noted the corresponding time, the nation encounters considerable difficulties in achieving operational status.

"Its integration into the country's inventory likely depends not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the reliable performance of the nuclear-propulsion unit," specialists stated.

"There occurred several flawed evaluations, and an accident resulting in several deaths."

A military journal cited in the analysis claims the weapon has a range of between a substantial span, allowing "the projectile to be stationed across the country and still be equipped to strike objectives in the United States mainland."

The corresponding source also says the missile can travel as low as 164 to 328 feet above the surface, making it difficult for air defences to engage.

The projectile, referred to as an operational name by a Western alliance, is considered propelled by a nuclear reactor, which is intended to commence operation after solid fuel rocket boosters have launched it into the sky.

An inquiry by a media outlet the previous year identified a site a considerable distance above the capital as the probable deployment area of the missile.

Employing orbital photographs from the recent past, an analyst informed the outlet he had detected nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the facility.

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