Russia's "unlimited‑range" nuclear cruise missile completes long‑range test

Frame from a Russian Ministry of Defence (Mil.ru) video of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile launch, 2018. Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence — credit: Mil.ru / Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

​By Martin Foskett | Newswire | Knelstrom Media

​MOSCOW, Russia. Russia has announced the successful completion of a flight test for its long‑rumoured nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Burevestnik, a system President Vladimir Putin described this week as "a unique weapons system that no other country possesses."

The test was conducted on 21 October and saw the missile fly a reported 14,000 kilometres under nuclear propulsion, without exhausting its range. Officials said the rocket operated continuously for hours and successfully evaded simulated missile defence systems, confirming what the Kremlin described as its ability to defeat "any existing interception model."​

The Burevestnik, officially designated 9M730, and known to NATO as SSC-X-9 "Skyfall", is powered by a nuclear turbojet engine, enabling what Russian designers claim is effectively unlimited range, with the potential for months of continuous flight. The missile cruises at a speed estimated between 850 and 1,300 kilometres per hour, flying just 25 to 100 metres above ground level, effectively skimming terrain to avoid radar detection.

At the heart of the system lies a compact nuclear reactor, integrated into the engine assembly to heat air compressed by the intake. This configuration allows for sustained propulsion without refuelling. Russian defence officials claim this setup enables the missile to loiter indefinitely, or reroute in real time, allowing for global reach via non-linear, unpredictable trajectories.

Unveiled by Putin in 2018 as part of a broader suite of strategic deterrents, the Burevestnik joins weapons such as the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, the Zircon scramjet missile, the air-launched Kinzhal, the Poseidon underwater nuclear drone, and the silo-based Sarmat ICBM. These systems, according to Russian officials, are designed to ensure retaliatory capability even in a first-strike scenario that disables traditional command structures.

The Burevestnik's payload is described as a "special" combat unit, military shorthand for a nuclear warhead, though precise yield remains unconfirmed. Some analysts speculate it may share the physical structure of the Kh-102 nuclear-capable cruise missile, which carries a 250-kiloton warhead, but such comparisons remain unverified.

The weapon's development followed the US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, a move the Kremlin interpreted as justification to pursue non-traditional delivery systems. In 2019, an explosion during testing at Nenoksa drew attention to the programme, killing five engineers and causing a brief spike in local radiation, widely attributed to an early Burevestnik test.

Western analysts continue to raise doubts about the missile's reliability, safety, and practical utility, noting the potential hazards posed by a nuclear reactor in flight and the difficulty of maintaining command over such a long-endurance system. Nonetheless, the recent test and public endorsement by Putin suggest that the Burevestnik is no longer a hypothetical, but a functioning prototype in late-stage trials.

Whether it will ever be mass-deployed remains unclear. But its message, loitering quietly just beyond radar, with no known expiration date, is now unmistakably airborne.