Moscow Confirms Effective Test of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Missile

The nation has evaluated the reactor-driven Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the nation's senior general.

"We have launched a multi-hour flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.

The terrain-hugging prototype missile, originally disclosed in the past decade, has been described as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to avoid missile defences.

Western experts have previously cast doubt over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The national leader stated that a "last accomplished trial" of the weapon had been held in 2023, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of at least 13 known tests, just two instances had partial success since several years ago, according to an arms control campaign group.

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

He noted the projectile's ascent and directional control were evaluated and were determined to be up to specification, according to a domestic media outlet.

"Consequently, it displayed superior performance to evade anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency quoted the general as saying.

The missile's utility has been the focus of vigorous discussion in defence and strategic sectors since it was initially revealed in 2018.

A 2021 report by a foreign defence research body concluded: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would offer Moscow a distinctive armament with global strike capacity."

Yet, as an international strategic institute observed the corresponding time, Russia encounters considerable difficulties in making the weapon viable.

"Its induction into the country's arsenal potentially relies not only on surmounting the considerable technical challenge of ensuring the consistent operation of the nuclear-propulsion unit," analysts wrote.

"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an incident leading to several deaths."

A military journal quoted in the study asserts the weapon has a operational radius of between a substantial span, permitting "the weapon to be based across the country and still be capable to target goals in the American territory."

The same journal also explains the weapon can fly as close to the ground as 50 to 100 metres above the earth, making it difficult for air defences to intercept.

The weapon, referred to as an operational name by an international defence pact, is thought to be driven by a reactor system, which is intended to engage after initial propulsion units have propelled it into the sky.

An inquiry by a media outlet the previous year located a facility 295 miles above the capital as the possible firing point of the missile.

Utilizing satellite imagery from last summer, an analyst reported to the agency he had observed several deployment sites being built at the site.

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