Moscow Reports Successful Test of Nuclear-Powered Storm Petrel Cruise Missile

Russia has tested the atomic-propelled Burevestnik strategic weapon, according to the nation's top military official.

"We have conducted a extended flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it covered a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official the general reported to the Russian leader in a broadcast conference.

The terrain-hugging advanced armament, initially revealed in recent years, has been described as having a theoretically endless flight path and the capacity to evade missile defences.

Western experts have in the past questioned over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The president said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been carried out in the previous year, but the statement was not externally confirmed. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, only two had limited accomplishment since 2016, based on an arms control campaign group.

The military leader reported the weapon was in the sky for 15 hours during the trial on 21 October.

He explained the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were tested and were confirmed as up to specification, as per a local reporting service.

"Therefore, it exhibited superior performance to evade missile and air defence systems," the media source stated the commander as saying.

The projectile's application has been the subject of heated controversy in defence and strategic sectors since it was originally disclosed in 2018.

A 2021 report by a American military analysis unit concluded: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would offer Moscow a distinctive armament with intercontinental range capability."

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

"Its integration into the nation's inventory arguably hinges not only on surmounting the significant development hurdle of securing the dependable functioning of the reactor drive mechanism," specialists noted.

"There have been several flawed evaluations, and a mishap resulting in a number of casualties."

A armed forces periodical quoted in the analysis claims the projectile has a operational radius of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, allowing "the weapon to be based throughout the nation and still be able to target goals in the United States mainland."

The identical publication also says the projectile can travel as at minimal altitude as 164 to 328 feet above ground, causing complexity for aerial protection systems to engage.

The weapon, code-named Skyfall by a Western alliance, is believed to be propelled by a atomic power source, which is supposed to activate after initial propulsion units have sent it into the atmosphere.

An examination by a reporting service the previous year pinpointed a site a considerable distance from the city as the likely launch site of the weapon.

Employing orbital photographs from August 2024, an expert reported to the service he had identified nine horizontal launch pads in development at the location.

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