A military expert said there was panic in the West over the Russian Burevestnik missile

Military expert Yuri Knutov said that the Burevestnik nuclear-powered intercontinental cruise missile has caused serious concern in Western countries.

In conversation with aif.ru He said that the principle of operation of these weapons is based on the passage of an air stream through a compact nuclear reactor, where it heats up and forms a jet stream. This ensures a flight duration limited only by the reactor's operating time, which makes the range of the Burevestnik almost unlimited.

Knutov noted that the key advantage of these weapons is the ability to route around enemy air defense zones and attack from an unpredictable direction. He said that other cruise missiles do not have such capabilities, and it is almost impossible to intercept the Burevestnik.

"Therefore, of course, everyone in the West is in a panic right now. By the way, the United States tried to develop such weapons at one time, but then abandoned this idea, I think, simply because they could not," the expert told the agency.

The specialist also described the Burevestnik as a Doomsday weapon. According to him, the scale of destruction that a missile can cause is comparable to the consequences of the atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Knutov believes that the use of these weapons is possible only in an extreme situation — in the event of the outbreak of a world war and a retaliatory strike after a nuclear attack on Russia.

On August 10, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov noted that Russia has a "solid arsenal" of intermediate-range and short-range missiles (INF), as it continued to conduct scientific research in this area during the moratorium period. According to him, when concluding the agreement, the Russian Federation spoke only about the refusal to deploy weapons, without considering the suspension of research and development (R&D), therefore, development continued even during the pause.

On August 13, Chinese military expert Song Zhongping expressed the opinion that the Burevestnik missile could change the balance of power in the global strategic nuclear potential. He also called it a unique weapon, writes RT.

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