Russia Confirms Effective Trial of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Missile

Russia has tested the nuclear-powered Burevestnik strategic weapon, as stated by the nation's senior general.

"We have conducted a extended flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traveled a 14,000km distance, which is not the limit," Senior Military Leader the general told the head of state in a broadcast conference.

The low-flying experimental weapon, originally disclosed in 2018, has been portrayed as having a potentially unlimited range and the ability to avoid anti-missile technology.

Western experts have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and the nation's statements of having successfully tested it.

The president stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the armament had been conducted in the previous year, but the statement lacked outside validation. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, just two instances had limited accomplishment since several years ago, according to an non-proliferation organization.

The general reported the missile was in the atmosphere for a significant duration during the evaluation on October 21.

He said the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were assessed and were determined to be complying with standards, as per a local reporting service.

"As a result, it demonstrated superior performance to evade missile and air defence systems," the media source reported the general as saying.

The projectile's application has been the subject of vigorous discussion in armed forces and security communities since it was initially revealed in the past decade.

A recent analysis by a US Air Force intelligence center stated: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would give Russia a unique weapon with global strike capacity."

Nonetheless, as a foreign policy research organization noted the same year, Moscow encounters major obstacles in making the weapon viable.

"Its induction into the country's stockpile potentially relies not only on resolving the considerable technical challenge of securing the reliable performance of the nuclear-propulsion unit," analysts noted.

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

A military journal referenced in the study claims the weapon has a operational radius of between a substantial span, allowing "the missile to be deployed across the country and still be able to strike objectives in the United States mainland."

The same journal also says the missile can operate as at minimal altitude as a very low elevation above the earth, causing complexity for air defences to engage.

The weapon, code-named Skyfall by a foreign security organization, is considered driven by a reactor system, which is supposed to engage after primary launch mechanisms have launched it into the atmosphere.

An inquiry by a media outlet recently located a facility 295 miles north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the weapon.

Employing space-based photos from August 2024, an analyst informed the agency he had identified nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the site.

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