On Sunday, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik missile. According to the Kremlin, the test took place on October 21, as part of a strategic exercise involving all three components of Russia’s nuclear forces. Talking to journalists on Monday, President Donald Trump criticized Putin for testing missiles instead of focusing on ending the war in Ukraine, and recalled that the U.S. has nuclear submarines stationed off Russia’s shores. Here’s what we know about the Burevestnik test.

Russia conducted a successful new test of its nuclear-powered, long-range cruise missile the Burevestnik (“Storm Petrel“), President Vladimir Putin announced on Sunday in a video released by the Kremlin.

According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, Putin made the announcement during a meeting with senior military commanders — including the chief of the Russian army’s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov — at the command center of Russia’s Joint Group of Forces.

Dressed in military uniform for the occasion, Putin said that Russia had carried out a strategic deterrence exercise that included “training and combat launches of all three components of the strategic nuclear forces,” along with tests of “advanced weapons systems.”

Gerasimov then delivered a report stating that the exercise included training launches of the Yars and Sineva intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as two Kh-102 cruise missiles. Putin said that the tests “once again confirmed the reliability of Russia’s nuclear shield” and asked Gerasimov to also brief him on the Burevestnik test.

Gerasimov said the test took place on October 21. Unlike past tests, he said, this one demonstrated the missile’s extended flight duration. According to the general, it covered 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) and remained airborne for about 15 hours. “The missile’s technical characteristics allow it to strike highly protected targets at any distance with guaranteed accuracy,” Gerasimov explained.

“This is a unique product that no one in the world has,” Putin said. “We need to determine possible ways of deploying it and begin preparing the infrastructure for its placement within our armed forces.”

The changing

• How drones change everything, and nothing Meduza’s in-depth examination of Russian–Ukrainian unmanned warfare and where it’s leading this bloody conflict

On Monday, Norway’s military intelligence service told Reuters that it “can confirm” that Russia conducted a new test launch of Burevestnik.

Asked if he considered the test “nuclear sabre-rattling,” U.S. President Donald Trump said that Russia “is not playing games with us [and] we’re not playing games with them either.” He also told reporters that the U.S. “tests missiles all the time” and has the “greatest nuclear submarine in the world” stationed off Russia’s shores.

“I don’t think it’s an appropriate thing for Putin to be saying,” Trump added. “You ought to get the war ended, the war that should have taken one week is now in […] its fourth year, that’s what you ought to do instead of testing missiles.”

An old idea

Putin first announced the development of the Burevestnik in 2018, during an address to Russia’s Federal Assembly. The U.S.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative later reported that according to U.S. intelligence data, Russia conducted at least 13 Burevestnik tests betwen 2017 and 2019, but only two were “partially successful.”

In August 2019, an explosion occurred at a test site near the city of Severodvinsk in Russia’s Arkhangelsk region, killing seven employees of Rosatom and the Defense Ministry. A few days later, President Trump said that U.S. officials believed the explosion involved a Burevestnik missile. The Russian authorities later acknowledged that the blast took place at a facility that could have produced radiation.

In October 2023, Putin said Russia had conducted “the latest successful test” of a Burevestnik missile equipped with a nuclear propulsion system. Around the same time, The New York Times reported that satellite imagery suggested Russia was either preparing for or had already carried out Burevestnik tests on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

In August 2025, independent researchers reported that new satellite images of the Novaya Zemlya range suggested Russia was preparing for another Burevestnik test.

Russia’s other new weapon

• Introducing the Oreshnik What Russia’s ‘new’ ballistic missile means for Ukraine and nuclear security

The idea of a nuclear-powered missile long predates the Burevestnik. A similar American initiative, Project Pluto, was developed between 1961 and 1964 with the goal of creating a low-flying cruise missile capable of speeds up to Mach 3.

The missile was to be powered by highly enriched uranium. It’s main advantage would be its range: with thrust comparable to that of conventional jet engines, a nuclear fuel supply would allow the missile to stay aloft for days instead of hours.

The U.S. succeeded in building a functioning nuclear-powered missile engine, mounted on a railway platform, and testing it at full power for five minutes. The project was later scrapped after it was deemed too costly, technically complex, and unsafe. Instead, the U.S. opted to focus on improving conventional ballistic missiles.

The Soviet Union also worked on nuclear propulsion for aircraft but ultimately abandoned those efforts for largely the same reasons.