Moscow Announces Accomplished Evaluation of Atomic-Propelled Storm Petrel Weapon

Moscow has trialed the reactor-driven Burevestnik strategic weapon, according to the country's leading commander.

"We have conducted a extended flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov informed the Russian leader in a public appearance.

The terrain-hugging advanced armament, first announced in recent years, has been described as having a possible global reach and the capacity to avoid anti-missile technology.

International analysts have in the past questioned over the projectile's tactical importance and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The head of state said that a "last accomplished trial" of the missile had been carried out in the previous year, but the assertion was not externally confirmed. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, merely a pair had moderate achievement since 2016, based on an disarmament advocacy body.

The general said the weapon was in the air for a significant duration during the evaluation on 21 October.

He noted the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were assessed and were determined to be complying with standards, as per a local reporting service.

"Consequently, it exhibited superior performance to circumvent missile and air defence systems," the news agency stated the commander as saying.

The weapon's usefulness has been the focus of intense debate in military and defence circles since it was originally disclosed in the past decade.

A 2021 report by a US Air Force intelligence center stated: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would offer Moscow a unique weapon with global strike capacity."

Yet, as an international strategic institute observed the same year, the nation faces major obstacles in developing a functional system.

"Its integration into the country's stockpile likely depends not only on overcoming the substantial engineering obstacle of guaranteeing the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," experts stated.

"There have been multiple unsuccessful trials, and an incident causing a number of casualties."

A military journal cited in the report asserts the projectile has a range of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing "the weapon to be deployed anywhere in Russia and still be capable to strike objectives in the continental US."

The corresponding source also explains the weapon can operate as low as 50 to 100 metres above ground, causing complexity for defensive networks to stop.

The missile, designated an operational name by an international defence pact, is considered propelled by a reactor system, which is supposed to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the sky.

An inquiry by a news agency the previous year located a facility a considerable distance north of Moscow as the likely launch site of the missile.

Employing space-based photos from August 2024, an specialist informed the service he had detected multiple firing positions being built at the location.

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