Moscow Announces Successful Trial of Atomic-Propelled Storm Petrel Missile
Moscow has trialed the nuclear-powered Burevestnik strategic weapon, as stated by the country's leading commander.
"We have launched a prolonged flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the maximum," Top Army Official the general informed the Russian leader in a public appearance.
The low-altitude advanced armament, originally disclosed in 2018, has been portrayed as having a potentially unlimited range and the ability to evade missile defences.
Foreign specialists have previously cast doubt over the projectile's tactical importance and Moscow's assertions of having accomplished its evaluation.
The president said that a "last accomplished trial" of the armament had been conducted in 2023, but the assertion lacked outside validation. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had partial success since several years ago, according to an arms control campaign group.
The general reported the weapon was in the air for 15 hours during the evaluation on the specified date.
He explained the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were assessed and were confirmed as up to specification, as per a local reporting service.
"Consequently, it demonstrated superior performance to circumvent anti-missile and aerial protection," the outlet reported the general as saying.
The weapon's usefulness has been the topic of heated controversy in military and defence circles since it was first announced in 2018.
A previous study by a American military analysis unit determined: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a singular system with global strike capacity."
However, as a foreign policy research organization noted the identical period, Moscow confronts major obstacles in making the weapon viable.
"Its induction into the nation's stockpile likely depends not only on overcoming the substantial engineering obstacle of guaranteeing the consistent operation of the atomic power system," specialists noted.
"There occurred several flawed evaluations, and an incident leading to a number of casualties."
A defence publication quoted in the report claims the weapon has a flight distance of between a substantial span, permitting "the weapon to be deployed anywhere in Russia and still be able to target objectives in the United States mainland."
The same journal also explains the projectile can travel as close to the ground as a very low elevation above ground, causing complexity for aerial protection systems to engage.
The missile, code-named a specific moniker by an international defence pact, is thought to be powered by a nuclear reactor, which is intended to commence operation after primary launch mechanisms have sent it into the atmosphere.
An investigation by a news agency the previous year located a facility a considerable distance above the capital as the possible firing point of the missile.
Utilizing orbital photographs from last summer, an specialist told the service he had identified several deployment sites in development at the location.
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