Moscow Announces Accomplished Trial of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Missile

Russia has tested the nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, according to the state's leading commander.

"We have conducted a extended flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it covered a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the maximum," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov informed the head of state in a public appearance.

The low-flying prototype missile, first announced in 2018, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to avoid anti-missile technology.

Foreign specialists have earlier expressed skepticism over the missile's strategic value and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The national leader stated that a "final successful test" of the armament had been conducted in the previous year, but the assertion lacked outside validation. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, just two instances had partial success since several years ago, according to an arms control campaign group.

The general stated the projectile was in the atmosphere for 15 hours during the test on 21 October.

He said the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were assessed and were found to be up to specification, according to a local reporting service.

"Therefore, it demonstrated advanced abilities to bypass defensive networks," the news agency stated the commander as saying.

The weapon's usefulness has been the topic of heated controversy in military and defence circles since it was initially revealed in recent years.

A recent analysis by a US Air Force intelligence center concluded: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would offer Moscow a distinctive armament with worldwide reach potential."

Nonetheless, as a global defence think tank noted the same year, Moscow confronts considerable difficulties in developing a functional system.

"Its entry into the nation's inventory potentially relies not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the dependable functioning of the reactor drive mechanism," analysts wrote.

"There occurred several flawed evaluations, and an incident causing a number of casualties."

A defence publication referenced in the analysis asserts the missile has a operational radius of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, enabling "the weapon to be stationed throughout the nation and still be equipped to strike targets in the United States mainland."

The identical publication also explains the missile can operate as close to the ground as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, rendering it challenging for aerial protection systems to intercept.

The missile, referred to as Skyfall by a foreign security organization, is considered propelled by a reactor system, which is designed to engage after primary launch mechanisms have propelled it into the sky.

An examination by a reporting service the previous year located a site a considerable distance above the capital as the probable deployment area of the weapon.

Employing orbital photographs from last summer, an specialist informed the service he had observed several deployment sites being built at the location.

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