Russia Reports Accomplished Test of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Weapon
The nation has evaluated the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the country's top military official.
"We have conducted a multi-hour flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it covered a 14,000km distance, which is not the maximum," Top Army Official the commander told the Russian leader in a televised meeting.
The terrain-hugging experimental weapon, first announced in the past decade, has been described as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capability to evade defensive systems.
International analysts have previously cast doubt over the projectile's tactical importance and Russian claims of having accomplished its evaluation.
The national leader declared that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been conducted in 2023, but the claim was not externally confirmed. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had moderate achievement since 2016, according to an arms control campaign group.
The general said the missile was in the air for fifteen hours during the trial on 21 October.
He noted the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were tested and were found to be up to specification, according to a domestic media outlet.
"Therefore, it displayed advanced abilities to circumvent defensive networks," the media source reported the official as saying.
The missile's utility has been the subject of vigorous discussion in military and defence circles since it was initially revealed in recent years.
A 2021 report by a US Air Force intelligence center stated: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a singular system with global strike capacity."
Nonetheless, as a global defence think tank noted the corresponding time, Moscow encounters considerable difficulties in achieving operational status.
"Its entry into the nation's inventory arguably hinges not only on surmounting the significant development hurdle of ensuring the consistent operation of the atomic power system," specialists stated.
"There were several flawed evaluations, and an incident resulting in multiple fatalities."
A military journal quoted in the study asserts the weapon has a flight distance of between 10,000 and 20,000km, enabling "the weapon to be stationed throughout the nation and still be able to target targets in the continental US."
The same journal also explains the weapon can operate as close to the ground as a very low elevation above the earth, rendering it challenging for aerial protection systems to stop.
The weapon, code-named a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is thought to be driven by a reactor system, which is designed to engage after initial propulsion units have propelled it into the atmosphere.
An examination by a news agency recently located a location a considerable distance from the city as the possible firing point of the armament.
Employing satellite imagery from last summer, an analyst reported to the service he had identified several deployment sites in development at the location.
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