Moscow Announces Effective Trial of Nuclear-Powered Storm Petrel Missile
The nation has evaluated the reactor-driven Burevestnik long-range missile, as reported by the country's senior general.
"We have executed a multi-hour flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traveled a vast distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov informed the head of state in a broadcast conference.
The low-altitude advanced armament, initially revealed in the past decade, has been portrayed as having a potentially unlimited range and the capacity to bypass missile defences.
Western experts have earlier expressed skepticism over the missile's strategic value and Russian claims of having effectively trialed it.
The head of state stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been carried out in the previous year, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, merely a pair had moderate achievement since 2016, as per an disarmament advocacy body.
The military leader said the projectile was in the sky for 15 hours during the evaluation on 21 October.
He said the projectile's ascent and directional control were tested and were determined to be meeting requirements, based on a domestic media outlet.
"Therefore, it demonstrated superior performance to circumvent defensive networks," the outlet stated the general as saying.
The weapon's usefulness has been the subject of intense debate in military and defence circles since it was first announced in the past decade.
A recent analysis by a US Air Force intelligence center determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would provide the nation a singular system with intercontinental range capability."
Yet, as a foreign policy research organization noted the identical period, Moscow encounters major obstacles in achieving operational status.
"Its entry into the country's inventory arguably hinges not only on surmounting the considerable technical challenge of guaranteeing the reliable performance of the reactor drive mechanism," experts wrote.
"There occurred several flawed evaluations, and an accident causing a number of casualties."
A armed forces periodical quoted in the study states the missile has a operational radius of between a substantial span, enabling "the weapon to be based throughout the nation and still be capable to reach targets in the American territory."
The corresponding source also explains the missile can travel as close to the ground as 164 to 328 feet above the surface, causing complexity for air defences to stop.
The weapon, referred to as an operational name by a Western alliance, is believed to be powered by a reactor system, which is supposed to activate after initial propulsion units have propelled it into the sky.
An investigation by a media outlet recently located a facility a considerable distance from the city as the likely launch site of the weapon.
Using space-based photos from August 2024, an expert reported to the service he had identified nine horizontal launch pads being built at the facility.
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