Russia has tested the reactor-driven Burevestnik strategic weapon, according to the country's top military official.
"We have executed a multi-hour flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it covered a vast distance, which is not the limit," Chief of General Staff the commander told the Russian leader in a televised meeting.
The terrain-hugging experimental weapon, first announced in recent years, has been portrayed as having a possible global reach and the capability to avoid missile defences.
Western experts have in the past questioned over the missile's strategic value and the nation's statements of having successfully tested it.
The president declared that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the armament had been held in 2023, but the statement lacked outside validation. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, only two had partial success since several years ago, as per an arms control campaign group.
The military leader reported the weapon was in the atmosphere for 15 hours during the test on October 21.
He explained the projectile's ascent and directional control were tested and were found to be up to specification, according to a domestic media outlet.
"Therefore, it displayed advanced abilities to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the media source quoted the official as saying.
The weapon's usefulness has been the topic of heated controversy in military and defence circles since it was initially revealed in the past decade.
A 2021 report by a American military analysis unit determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would give Russia a singular system with worldwide reach potential."
Yet, as a foreign policy research organization commented the identical period, Moscow encounters major obstacles in achieving operational status.
"Its entry into the state's arsenal likely depends not only on surmounting the considerable technical challenge of ensuring the consistent operation of the atomic power system," analysts wrote.
"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an accident leading to multiple fatalities."
A armed forces periodical cited in the analysis asserts the missile has a range of between 10,000 and 20,000km, enabling "the weapon to be deployed anywhere in Russia and still be capable to reach targets in the continental US."
The corresponding source also notes the projectile can travel as low as 164 to 328 feet above ground, causing complexity for air defences to intercept.
The projectile, designated a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is thought to be driven by a reactor system, which is designed to engage after solid fuel rocket boosters have launched it into the sky.
An investigation by a media outlet recently pinpointed a location 475km north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the missile.
Using satellite imagery from the recent past, an specialist informed the service he had observed several deployment sites being built at the site.
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