Moscow Announces Effective Trial of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Weapon
Moscow has trialed the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, as reported by the nation's top military official.
"We have launched a prolonged flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traveled a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov informed President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.
The terrain-hugging prototype missile, originally disclosed in recent years, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capacity to evade missile defences.
International analysts have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having accomplished its evaluation.
The president said that a "last accomplished trial" of the armament had been held in last year, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, merely a pair had moderate achievement since several years ago, according to an arms control campaign group.
The military leader reported the projectile was in the atmosphere for fifteen hours during the evaluation on the specified date.
He noted the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were tested and were confirmed as complying with standards, according to a domestic media outlet.
"Therefore, it displayed high capabilities to bypass missile and air defence systems," the news agency reported the commander as saying.
The projectile's application has been the subject of intense debate in defence and strategic sectors since it was first announced in 2018.
A recent analysis by a American military analysis unit stated: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would provide the nation a distinctive armament with intercontinental range capability."
Yet, as a global defence think tank observed the corresponding time, Moscow encounters significant challenges in achieving operational status.
"Its entry into the state's stockpile potentially relies not only on resolving the significant development hurdle of ensuring the dependable functioning of the reactor drive mechanism," experts noted.
"There occurred multiple unsuccessful trials, and a mishap resulting in multiple fatalities."
A defence publication cited in the analysis claims the missile has a operational radius of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing "the weapon to be deployed across the country and still be capable to reach targets in the United States mainland."
The identical publication also says the projectile can operate as low as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, causing complexity for defensive networks to intercept.
The missile, code-named a specific moniker by a Western alliance, is considered powered by a atomic power source, which is designed to commence operation after primary launch mechanisms have sent it into the atmosphere.
An investigation by a news agency last year pinpointed a location 295 miles above the capital as the possible firing point of the missile.
Using space-based photos from the recent past, an specialist informed the service he had observed multiple firing positions under construction at the facility.
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