Russia Reports Successful Trial of Nuclear-Powered Storm Petrel Cruise Missile

Russia has tested the nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, as reported by the state's top military official.

"We have executed a extended flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traveled a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official the general informed the Russian leader in a televised meeting.

The low-altitude advanced armament, initially revealed in the past decade, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to avoid defensive systems.

Western experts have in the past questioned over the weapon's military utility and Moscow's assertions of having accomplished its evaluation.

The president said that a "last accomplished trial" of the weapon had been held in 2023, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had limited accomplishment since the mid-2010s, as per an disarmament advocacy body.

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

He noted the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were evaluated and were found to be up to specification, according to a local reporting service.

"As a result, it displayed advanced abilities to evade missile and air defence systems," the news agency stated the general as saying.

The missile's utility has been the focus of intense debate in defence and strategic sectors since it was originally disclosed in recent years.

A 2021 report by a US Air Force intelligence center determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would give Russia a singular system with intercontinental range capability."

Nonetheless, as an international strategic institute noted the corresponding time, Moscow confronts considerable difficulties in achieving operational status.

"Its induction into the nation's inventory arguably hinges not only on overcoming the significant development hurdle of guaranteeing the dependable functioning of the reactor drive mechanism," experts noted.

"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an accident causing several deaths."

A armed forces periodical quoted in the analysis states the missile has a range of between a substantial span, allowing "the projectile to be deployed anywhere in Russia and still be able to reach goals in the American territory."

The corresponding source also says the projectile can operate as at minimal altitude as a very low elevation above the surface, rendering it challenging for air defences to intercept.

The missile, referred to as an operational name by an international defence pact, is thought to be powered by a atomic power source, which is supposed to commence operation after solid fuel rocket boosters have launched it into the sky.

An inquiry by a reporting service the previous year pinpointed a site a considerable distance above the capital as the probable deployment area of the weapon.

Utilizing orbital photographs from August 2024, an expert informed the agency he had observed nine horizontal launch pads being built at the facility.

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