Moscow Confirms Effective Trial of Nuclear-Powered Storm Petrel Cruise Missile

The nation has evaluated the nuclear-powered Burevestnik strategic weapon, as reported by the country's senior general.

"We have launched a multi-hour flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it covered a vast distance, which is not the maximum," Chief of General Staff the commander reported to President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.

The low-altitude prototype missile, first announced in recent years, has been portrayed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to evade anti-missile technology.

Western experts have earlier expressed skepticism over the projectile's tactical importance and Moscow's assertions of having effectively trialed it.

The national leader stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the armament had been carried out in 2023, but the claim lacked outside validation. Of at least 13 known tests, just two instances had limited accomplishment since several years ago, according to an arms control campaign group.

The general reported the projectile was in the atmosphere for fifteen hours during the trial on 21 October.

He said the projectile's ascent and directional control were tested and were determined to be complying with standards, based on a local reporting service.

"Therefore, it displayed advanced abilities to evade anti-missile and aerial protection," the media source stated the commander as saying.

The missile's utility has been the subject of vigorous discussion in military and defence circles since it was initially revealed in the past decade.

A 2021 report by a foreign defence research body determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would give Russia a singular system with worldwide reach potential."

However, as an international strategic institute noted the same year, Russia confronts major obstacles in achieving operational status.

"Its integration into the state's stockpile likely depends not only on resolving the substantial engineering obstacle of guaranteeing the consistent operation of the nuclear-propulsion unit," experts noted.

"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an accident resulting in a number of casualties."

A military journal quoted in the report claims the projectile has a range of between 10,000 and 20,000km, enabling "the missile to be deployed anywhere in Russia and still be equipped to strike objectives in the United States mainland."

The identical publication also notes the missile can fly as at minimal altitude as 164 to 328 feet above ground, causing complexity for defensive networks to stop.

The missile, code-named Skyfall by a Western alliance, is considered driven by a nuclear reactor, which is intended to engage after initial propulsion units have launched it into the atmosphere.

An inquiry by a media outlet recently identified a facility 475km above the capital as the possible firing point of the missile.

Employing space-based photos from the recent past, an analyst told the service he had observed nine horizontal launch pads in development at the location.

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