Moscow Announces Effective Trial of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Missile

The nation has evaluated the reactor-driven Burevestnik cruise missile, as stated by the state's senior general.

"We have launched a prolonged flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it covered a vast distance, which is not the maximum," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov informed the head of state in a broadcast conference.

The low-flying advanced armament, originally disclosed in 2018, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to evade anti-missile technology.

Foreign specialists have in the past questioned over the weapon's military utility and the nation's statements of having accomplished its evaluation.

The president said that a "final successful test" of the missile had been carried out in last year, but the claim could not be independently verified. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, merely a pair had partial success since several years ago, based on an non-proliferation organization.

The general said the weapon was in the sky for fifteen hours during the evaluation on the specified date.

He noted the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were assessed and were found to be up to specification, according to a national news agency.

"As a result, it exhibited high capabilities to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the media source reported the general as saying.

The missile's utility has been the subject of heated controversy in armed forces and security communities since it was initially revealed in recent years.

A recent analysis by a American military analysis unit determined: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a singular system with worldwide reach potential."

However, as an international strategic institute commented the corresponding time, Russia encounters significant challenges in developing a functional system.

"Its integration into the state's stockpile potentially relies not only on surmounting the considerable technical challenge of securing the consistent operation of the atomic power system," experts wrote.

"There have been multiple unsuccessful trials, and an accident resulting in a number of casualties."

A defence publication quoted in the analysis asserts the weapon has a range of between 10,000 and 20,000km, permitting "the missile to be stationed across the country and still be equipped to target targets in the United States mainland."

The same journal also notes the projectile can fly as close to the ground as 164 to 328 feet above ground, making it difficult for defensive networks to engage.

The projectile, code-named a specific moniker by an international defence pact, is believed to be propelled by a nuclear reactor, which is intended to engage after initial propulsion units have launched it into the atmosphere.

An examination by a media outlet last year pinpointed a location 475km above the capital as the possible firing point of the armament.

Employing space-based photos from August 2024, an specialist informed the agency he had identified multiple firing positions in development at the site.

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