Arab Defense Website – November 7, 2025: Reports said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) spied on the testing of the Russian “Burevestnik” missile. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that a NATO reconnaissance ship was present in the area where the test took place on October 21.
Putin’s statement was supported by confirmation from the head of the Political-Military Affairs Bureau, Alexander Mikhailov, in his recent interview with TASS.
“Yes, they are closely monitoring our tests, using their entire system of satellites and long-range surveillance equipment, as well as reconnaissance systems installed on submarines deployed in the North Sea,” Mikhailov said.
He added that all of this will not affect the quality of Russian missile tests or the development of other new weapons.
He pointed out that Russia has never hidden its advanced military and technical solutions, and that all experiments are being carried out according to the planned schedule.
President Putin announced on November 4 that Russia is working on a new generation hypersonic (hypersonic) nuclear-powered cruise missile.
He added that this missile uses a nuclear generator similar to that used in the Burevestnik missile.
The Burevestnik missile represents one of the most controversial Russian armament projects in recent years, because it combines the concept of a low-altitude cruise missile with nuclear propulsion, giving it a practically unlimited range and the ability to remain in the air for long periods before choosing a path of attack. It began to be talked about publicly in 2018 when President Vladimir Putin revealed a group of weapons that he described as capable of bypassing any Western missile shield, and Burevestnik was at the forefront of them, as a weapon that changes the rules of strategic deterrence, as it can circumvent air defense lines via unexpected paths, fly at very low altitudes, in addition to the possibility of constantly changing its path during flight.
The missile is based on an engine powered by a small nuclear reactor, and here lies the essence of its uniqueness. Instead of carrying a large amount of conventional fuel, it uses a thermonuclear generator that heats air or light fuel to generate propulsion. This concept gives the missile the ability to fly for thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of kilometers without the need to refuel, which makes it capable of carrying out deep attack missions along paths very far from the path of traditional missiles. This ability makes monitoring it and predicting its path more difficult for the United States and NATO.
But this innovation is not without technical and environmental risks. Western reports indicated that the missile experiments faced great complications related to controlling the mini-nuclear reactor, especially during the take-off stage and stabilizing the thermal stability of the engine. The explosion of the Russian “Nyonoksa” test facility in 2019 and the resulting limited radiation leakage increased speculation about the nature of the tests related to the missile. However, Moscow continued to work on all systems associated with the project, including cooling technologies, crew protection during experiments, and mechanisms for securing the reactor in the event of a loss of control or a fall.
Functionally, Burevestnik is a weapon of a first-class deterrent nature, directed against distant strategic targets, including command and control centers, critical infrastructure, and military bases that are assumed to be outside the range of conventional Russian missiles. His presence in the Russian deterrence system aims to nullify any Western perception of the possibility of carrying out a first strike that would prevent Moscow from responding. In other words, the missile is not just a means of attack, but rather a message that a potential nuclear conflict will not guarantee the adversary any advantage or safe haven beyond the borders of Europe or even across the ocean.
Despite official secrecy about the final specifications of the missile, estimates indicate that it carries a nuclear warhead, moves at low subsonic or ultrasonic speeds, and is capable of flying on a winding path that is difficult to predict. Russia considers it a natural extension of the concepts of mobile deterrence it has developed since the Cold War, while the West views it as a technically unstable weapon that poses global environmental risks.
At the present time, there are no indications that it has entered full operational service, but the progress in testing over the past two years, along with statements by the Russian leadership linking it to nuclear-propelled hypersonic missile projects, suggests that Moscow is gradually approaching the stage of technical maturity for this weapon, transforming Burevestnik from a controversial experimental project into a new element in the global strategic deterrence equation.
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