Russia has tested the nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, Moscow’s top general has said.
“We have launched a multi-hour flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it covered a 14,000km (8,700-mile) distance, which is not the limit,” Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.
The low-flying experimental weapon, first announced in 2018, has been hailed as having a potentially unlimited range and the ability to evade missile defences.
Western experts have previously cast doubt over missile’s strategic value and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.
Putin said a “final successful test” of the weapon had been held in 2023, but the claim could not be independently verified. Of at least 13 known tests, only two had partial success since 2016, according to an arms control campaign group.
Gen Gerasimov said the missile was in the air for 15 hours during the test on 21 October.
He said the missile’s vertical and horizontal manoevreing were tested and were found to be up to specification, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
“Therefore, it demonstrated high capabilities to bypass missile and air defence systems,” Tass reported Gen Gerasimov as saying.
The missile’s utility has been the subject of intense debate in military and defences circles since it was first announced in 2018.
A 2021 report by the US Air Force’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center concluded: “A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a unique weapon with intercontinental range capability.”
However, as the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) noted the same year, Russia faces significant challenges in making the weapon viable.
“Its entry into Russia’s inventory arguably hinges not only on overcoming the considerable technical challenge of ensuring the reliable performance of the nuclear-propulsion unit,” IISS analysts wrote.
“There have been numerous flight-test failures, and an accident resulting in several deaths.”
A Russian military journal quoted in the IISS report claims the missile has a range of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing “the missile to be based anywhere in Russia and still be able to reach targets in the continental US”.
The same journal also says the missile can fly as low as 50 to 100 metres above ground, making it difficult for air defences to intercept.
The missile, code-named Skyfall by Nato, is thought to be powered by a nuclear reactor, which is supposed to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have launched it into the air.
An investigation by news agency Reuters last year identified a facility 475km (295 miles) north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the weapon.
Using satellite imagery from August 2024, analyst Decker Eveleth told Reuters he had identified nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the site.
