Russia Announces Successful Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Missile

Moscow has trialed the atomic-propelled Burevestnik strategic weapon, according to the country's leading commander.

"We have launched a multi-hour flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the maximum," Chief of General Staff the commander reported to President Vladimir Putin in a public appearance.

The low-altitude prototype missile, first announced in the past decade, has been portrayed as having a potentially unlimited range and the capacity to bypass defensive systems.

Western experts have earlier expressed skepticism over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The president stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the weapon had been held in the previous year, but the assertion was not externally confirmed. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, only two had moderate achievement since 2016, according to an disarmament advocacy body.

The general said the weapon was in the air for fifteen hours during the evaluation on the specified date.

He said the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were assessed and were confirmed as up to specification, based on a local reporting service.

"As a result, it displayed advanced abilities to circumvent defensive networks," the news agency quoted the commander as saying.

The projectile's application has been the topic of heated controversy in military and defence circles since it was first announced in recent years.

A previous study by a American military analysis unit stated: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would offer Moscow a distinctive armament with intercontinental range capability."

Nonetheless, as a foreign policy research organization noted the same year, Moscow faces significant challenges in developing a functional system.

"Its integration into the nation's stockpile potentially relies not only on surmounting the significant development hurdle of ensuring the dependable functioning of the atomic power system," experts noted.

"There were multiple unsuccessful trials, and an incident leading to several deaths."

A defence publication cited in the study states the missile has a flight distance of between a substantial span, permitting "the missile to be stationed across the country and still be capable to target goals in the continental US."

The same journal also says the weapon can travel as at minimal altitude as 50 to 100 metres above the earth, causing complexity for aerial protection systems to stop.

The projectile, referred to as Skyfall by a Western alliance, is thought to be propelled by a reactor system, which is designed to commence operation after solid fuel rocket boosters have sent it into the air.

An examination by a media outlet recently identified a site a considerable distance north of Moscow as the possible firing point of the armament.

Employing satellite imagery from the recent past, an expert reported to the outlet he had detected nine horizontal launch pads being built at the facility.

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