The Buran cruise missile, designation RSS-40, was a Soviet intercontinental cruise missile capable of carrying a 3,500 kg nuclear warhead. The project was canceled before flight tests began. It is unrelated to the later Buran reusable orbiter.
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Development
The project was authorized on 20 May 1954, parallel to the development of the Burya missile. The development however, began in April 1953 as a rocket-aircraft system by Myasishchev OKB with internal designation M-40. The project was canceled in November 1957, when two prototypes were just ready for flight testing, in favor of the R-7 Semyorka, since ICBMs were considered unstoppable. Like the Burya, the Buran consisted of two stages, the booster rockets designated M-41, and the cruise missile stage designated M-42.