Russia Reports Successful Evaluation of Nuclear-Powered Storm Petrel Cruise Missile
Moscow has trialed the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the nation's senior general.
"We have launched a prolonged flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the maximum," Chief of General Staff the general reported to President Vladimir Putin in a public appearance.
The low-altitude experimental weapon, originally disclosed in recent years, has been hailed as having a potentially unlimited range and the capability to bypass missile defences.
Western experts have earlier expressed skepticism over the projectile's tactical importance and the nation's statements of having accomplished its evaluation.
The head of state declared that a "final successful test" of the weapon had been carried out in the previous year, but the statement could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had limited accomplishment since 2016, as per an non-proliferation organization.
The military leader stated the weapon was in the sky for fifteen hours during the evaluation on 21 October.
He explained the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were tested and were found to be meeting requirements, as per a national news agency.
"As a result, it exhibited high capabilities to evade defensive networks," the media source reported the official as saying.
The projectile's application has been the subject of vigorous discussion in defence and strategic sectors since it was first announced in 2018.
A recent analysis by a American military analysis unit determined: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would offer Moscow a unique weapon with global strike capacity."
Yet, as a global defence think tank commented the same year, the nation confronts significant challenges in developing a functional system.
"Its induction into the nation's inventory potentially relies not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the consistent operation of the nuclear-propulsion unit," specialists wrote.
"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and a mishap resulting in several deaths."
A armed forces periodical quoted in the report states the missile has a flight distance of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, allowing "the projectile to be deployed throughout the nation and still be equipped to strike objectives in the continental US."
The same journal also says the projectile can travel as at minimal altitude as 164 to 328 feet above the surface, making it difficult for aerial protection systems to stop.
The weapon, designated an operational name by a Western alliance, is considered powered by a atomic power source, which is intended to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have sent it into the sky.
An inquiry by a media outlet last year located a site 475km from the city as the probable deployment area of the armament.
Utilizing satellite imagery from August 2024, an analyst told the service he had observed several deployment sites under construction at the site.
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