Russia's Burevestnik missile: Trump calls Putin test 'inappropriate'

The Burevestnik is a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable cruise missile announced in 2018 by Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Russia says it has successfully tested an experimental weapon that sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie: a nuclear-powered cruise missile with unlimited range, whose low-flying, terrain-hugging and loitering capabilities could evade American missile defenses and drop atomic bombs anywhere on Earth.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that the Burevestnik — meaning “storm petrel” (a type of sea bird) — was “indeed a unique weapon that no other country possesses.”

The development has drawn concern internationally, with President Donald Trump saying Monday it was “inappropriate” to be conducting such tests when Russia should be focusing on peace talks with Ukraine.

Putin defiant in response to U.S. sanctions01:12But many Western experts have questioned the value of the missile, which is code-named “Skyfall” by NATO. Some say it doesn’t do anything Russia can’t do already — while others ridicule it as a waste of money. There are also safety concerns that the mini-reactor that powers the missile could spark a radiation catastrophe.

“The main reason that no one else has tried to build something like this is that it doesn’t really have any use,” Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, told NBC News.