Russia has launched a brand-new nuclear weapon in a round-the-world missile test, the country’s defence chief has said.
The “Burevestnik” rocket is both nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable. It boasts an almost unlimited range and an unpredictable flight path.
The missile travelled 14,000 km (8,700 miles) and was in the air for 15 hours in total.
On Sunday, a statement confirmed that Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov had informed Vladimir Putin of the test.
Mr Putin has said the 9M730 Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) – known as the SSC-X-9 Skyfall to Nato – is “invincible”.
The Burevestnik tests have now been completed, Russia has said.
Work is now set to start on the final stage of testing before the missiles are deployed.
Just after 6am GMT, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that President Putin had travelled to a military command post for top-level talks.
There, he met General Gerasimov and more Russian top dogs.
“All of them gave the supreme commander-in-chief a detailed report on the situation along the line of contact,” Mr Peskov said.
Just four days earlier, Russia had launched a volley of missiles from a submarine in the Barents Sea, the icy stretch of water off Russia’s north coast.
The sub launched a Sineva intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while a Yars rocket was test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwest Russia.
In August this year, satellite imagery from Planet Labs was said to have shown test preparations of the Burevestnik at Russia’s Pan’kovo test range – again on Novaya Zemlya in the High North.
It remains unclear whether this weekend’s missile was launched from Pan’kovo.
