Moscow Reports Effective Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Weapon

The nation has evaluated the reactor-driven Burevestnik cruise missile, according to the nation's senior general.

"We have launched a prolonged flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it covered a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Chief of General Staff the general informed President Vladimir Putin in a public appearance.

The low-flying experimental weapon, originally disclosed in 2018, has been hailed as having a possible global reach and the capability to avoid defensive systems.

Foreign specialists have in the past questioned over the missile's strategic value and Moscow's assertions of having accomplished its evaluation.

The national leader stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been held in last year, but the claim could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, only two had limited accomplishment since 2016, based on an arms control campaign group.

The general reported the weapon was in the atmosphere 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 complying with standards, according to a national news agency.

"Therefore, it exhibited superior performance to evade anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency reported the commander as saying.

The missile's utility has been the topic of intense debate in defence and strategic sectors since it was initially revealed in 2018.

A 2021 report by a US Air Force intelligence center concluded: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would offer Moscow a distinctive armament with intercontinental range capability."

Yet, as an international strategic institute commented the identical period, the nation confronts significant challenges in achieving operational status.

"Its integration into the state's arsenal likely depends not only on surmounting the significant development hurdle of guaranteeing the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," analysts wrote.

"There were multiple unsuccessful trials, and an accident leading to a number of casualties."

A armed forces periodical referenced in the analysis claims the projectile has a flight distance of between a substantial span, permitting "the weapon to be based anywhere in Russia and still be able to target goals in the continental US."

The same journal also says the weapon can operate as close to the ground as 164 to 328 feet above the surface, making it difficult for aerial protection systems to engage.

The weapon, designated Skyfall by a foreign security organization, is believed to be driven by a nuclear reactor, which is intended to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the air.

An examination by a reporting service last year located a site a considerable distance north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the weapon.

Using space-based photos from the recent past, an expert reported to the outlet he had detected multiple firing positions being built at the facility.

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