Moscow Announces Accomplished Trial of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Missile

Russia has tested the nuclear-powered Burevestnik strategic weapon, according to the nation's senior general.

"We have conducted a extended flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traversed a 14,000km distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov informed President Vladimir Putin in a broadcast conference.

The low-flying experimental weapon, originally disclosed in recent years, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capability to avoid anti-missile technology.

International analysts have in the past questioned over the missile's strategic value and Russian claims of having effectively trialed it.

The president said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been conducted in 2023, but the statement lacked outside validation. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, only two had limited accomplishment since 2016, based on an arms control campaign group.

The military leader said the projectile was in the sky for 15 hours during the evaluation on October 21.

He explained the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were tested and were determined to be meeting requirements, according to a local reporting service.

"As a result, it demonstrated high capabilities to evade defensive networks," the media source stated the official as saying.

The projectile's application has been the subject of vigorous discussion in armed forces and security communities since it was originally disclosed in recent years.

A recent analysis by a US Air Force intelligence center determined: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would offer Moscow a unique weapon with global strike capacity."

Yet, as a foreign policy research organization commented the corresponding time, Moscow confronts major obstacles in achieving operational status.

"Its integration into the nation's inventory arguably hinges not only on overcoming the considerable technical challenge of securing the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," analysts wrote.

"There have been multiple unsuccessful trials, and an accident leading to several deaths."

A military journal cited in the analysis claims the projectile has a operational radius of between a substantial span, permitting "the weapon to be deployed anywhere in Russia and still be capable to reach targets in the American territory."

The corresponding source also notes the weapon can operate as low as a very low elevation above the surface, making it difficult for defensive networks to intercept.

The projectile, designated a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is considered driven by a atomic power source, which is intended to commence operation after initial propulsion units have sent it into the air.

An examination by a media outlet recently located a facility 295 miles above the capital as the probable deployment area of the armament.

Utilizing space-based photos from August 2024, an specialist told the agency he had observed nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the facility.

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