Russia Confirms Effective Test of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Weapon

The nation has evaluated the reactor-driven Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the state's top military official.

"We have conducted a multi-hour flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it covered a vast distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin in a broadcast conference.

The low-altitude advanced armament, first announced in 2018, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to bypass defensive systems.

Foreign specialists have previously cast doubt over the missile's strategic value and Moscow's assertions of having accomplished its evaluation.

The president stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the armament had been held in the previous year, but the statement lacked outside validation. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, just two instances had partial success since several years ago, as per an disarmament advocacy body.

The military leader reported the weapon was in the air for fifteen hours during the evaluation on the specified date.

He explained the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were tested and were determined to be complying with standards, based on a domestic media outlet.

"As a result, it exhibited high capabilities to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency stated the general as saying.

The projectile's application has been the focus of vigorous discussion in military and defence circles since it was initially revealed in recent years.

A recent analysis by a US Air Force intelligence center stated: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would provide the nation a singular system with global strike capacity."

However, as an international strategic institute noted the corresponding time, Russia encounters significant challenges in achieving operational status.

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

"There were numerous flight-test failures, and an incident causing a number of casualties."

A military journal cited in the report states the weapon has a operational radius of between 10,000 and 20,000km, permitting "the weapon to be based anywhere in Russia and still be capable to target goals in the United States mainland."

The same journal also notes the missile can operate as low as a very low elevation above the surface, making it difficult for air defences to stop.

The missile, designated a specific moniker by a Western alliance, is thought to be propelled by a atomic power source, which is supposed to engage after initial propulsion units have sent it into the sky.

An investigation by a reporting service the previous year located a location 295 miles from the city as the probable deployment area of the armament.

Employing orbital photographs from the recent past, an expert reported to the service he had detected multiple firing positions in development at the facility.

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