Moscow Announces Effective Test of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Cruise Missile

The nation has evaluated the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, as stated by the country's leading commander.

"We have executed a prolonged flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traveled a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the ultimate range," Senior Military Leader the general reported to President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.

The low-altitude experimental weapon, originally disclosed in the past decade, has been described as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capability to bypass anti-missile technology.

Western experts have earlier expressed skepticism over the missile's strategic value and Moscow's assertions of having successfully tested it.

The president said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been carried out in last year, but the assertion was not externally confirmed. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, only two had limited accomplishment since 2016, based on an disarmament advocacy body.

The military leader reported the projectile was in the atmosphere for a significant duration during the trial on 21 October.

He noted the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were assessed and were determined to be meeting requirements, according to a local reporting service.

"Consequently, it displayed high capabilities to bypass anti-missile and aerial protection," the outlet quoted the official as saying.

The missile's utility has been the topic of vigorous discussion in defence and strategic sectors since it was originally disclosed in the past decade.

A recent analysis by a American military analysis unit determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would provide the nation a distinctive armament with intercontinental range capability."

Nonetheless, as a global defence think tank noted the same year, the nation faces significant challenges in developing a functional system.

"Its entry into the nation's arsenal likely depends not only on overcoming the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," specialists wrote.

"There were several flawed evaluations, and an accident causing multiple fatalities."

A armed forces periodical cited in the study asserts the projectile has a operational radius of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, enabling "the weapon to be deployed across the country and still be able to strike goals in the continental US."

The identical publication also says the missile can fly as close to the ground as a very low elevation above the surface, causing complexity for air defences to engage.

The projectile, code-named a specific moniker by a foreign security organization, is thought to be powered by a reactor system, which is designed to engage after initial propulsion units have propelled it into the air.

An inquiry by a media outlet last year pinpointed a site 295 miles above the capital as the possible firing point of the missile.

Utilizing orbital photographs from the recent past, an specialist told the outlet he had observed multiple firing positions being built at the location.

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