Russia tested new nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile

By Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia has successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, a nuclear-capable weapon Moscow says can evade any defence system, and will move towards deploying the weapon, President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.

Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of Russia's armed forces, told Putin that the missile travelled 14,000 km (8,700 miles) and was in the air for about 15 hours when it was tested on October 21.

Russia says the 9M730 Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) - dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO - is "invincible" to current and future missile defences, with an almost unlimited range and unpredictable flight path.

"It is a unique ware which nobody else in the world has," Putin, dressed in camouflage fatigues at a command point meeting with generals overseeing the war in Ukraine, said in remarks released by the Kremlin on Sunday.

Putin said that he had once been told by some Russian specialists that the weapon was unlikely to ever be possible, but now, he said, its "crucial testing" had been concluded.

He told Gerasimov that Russia needed to understand how to class the weapon and prepare infrastructure for deploying the Burevestnik.

Gerasimov said that the missile had flown on nuclear power and that this test had been different because it flew for such a long distance, though the range was essentially unlimited. He said it could defeat any anti-missile defences.

Putin on Wednesday oversaw a test of Russia's strategic nuclear forces on land, sea and air to rehearse their readiness and command structure.

"The so-called modernity of our nuclear deterrent forces is at the highest level," Putin said, higher than any other nuclear power.

Russia and the United States together have about 87% of the global inventory of nuclear weapons - enough to destroy the world many times over. Russia has 5,459 nuclear warheads while the United States has 5,177, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

"The strategic forces are capable of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation and the Union State in full," Putin said.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly ; Writing and editing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Elaine Hardcastle)