Moscow Announces Accomplished Test of Reactor-Driven Burevestnik Weapon
Russia has tested the reactor-driven Burevestnik strategic weapon, as reported by the country's leading commander.
"We have conducted a extended flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traveled a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official the commander informed President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.
The terrain-hugging advanced armament, originally disclosed in 2018, has been portrayed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capacity to evade missile defences.
Western experts have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and the nation's statements of having successfully tested it.
The president declared that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the weapon had been conducted in the previous year, but the claim lacked outside validation. Of at least 13 known tests, just two instances had partial success since 2016, according to an arms control campaign group.
The military leader stated the missile was in the air for a significant duration during the test on the specified date.
He noted the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were assessed and were determined to be meeting requirements, according to a local reporting service.
"Therefore, it demonstrated advanced abilities to bypass anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency reported the commander as saying.
The projectile's application has been the subject of intense debate in armed forces and security communities since it was originally disclosed in the past decade.
A recent analysis by a American military analysis unit stated: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would provide the nation a unique weapon with worldwide reach potential."
Nonetheless, as an international strategic institute observed the corresponding time, the nation encounters major obstacles in developing a functional system.
"Its entry into the nation's stockpile likely depends not only on surmounting the significant development hurdle of ensuring the consistent operation of the reactor drive mechanism," analysts wrote.
"There were several flawed evaluations, and a mishap leading to multiple fatalities."
A defence publication quoted in the study claims the weapon has a flight distance of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, enabling "the projectile to be based throughout the nation and still be equipped to target goals in the United States mainland."
The corresponding source also notes the projectile can operate as low as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, causing complexity for defensive networks to stop.
The weapon, code-named an operational name by a foreign security organization, is believed to be driven by a reactor system, which is designed to engage after primary launch mechanisms have sent it into the atmosphere.
An examination by a news agency recently pinpointed a location 295 miles north of Moscow as the possible firing point of the armament.
Utilizing orbital photographs from the recent past, an expert told the agency he had detected multiple firing positions under construction at the site.
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