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

The nation has evaluated the nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, according to the country's leading commander.

"We have launched a prolonged flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it covered a 14,000km distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official the general reported to the Russian leader in a public appearance.

The low-altitude experimental weapon, first announced in recent years, has been portrayed as having a possible global reach and the capability to avoid missile defences.

Foreign specialists have in the past questioned over the projectile's tactical importance and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The president stated that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the weapon had been carried out in 2023, but the assertion was not externally confirmed. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, just two instances had partial success since 2016, according to an disarmament advocacy body.

The military leader said the missile was in the air for fifteen hours during the trial on the specified date.

He explained the projectile's ascent and directional control were evaluated and were determined to be complying with standards, as per a local reporting service.

"As a result, it displayed advanced abilities to circumvent missile and air defence systems," the news agency reported 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 recent analysis by a American military analysis unit determined: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would provide the nation a distinctive armament with global strike capacity."

However, as an international strategic institute observed the same year, the nation confronts considerable difficulties in making the weapon viable.

"Its entry into the nation's arsenal arguably hinges not only on surmounting the considerable technical challenge of guaranteeing the consistent operation of the atomic power system," analysts noted.

"There were numerous flight-test failures, and a mishap leading to several deaths."

A armed forces periodical quoted in the report asserts the projectile has a flight distance of between 10,000 and 20,000km, enabling "the weapon to be deployed throughout the nation and still be capable to reach goals in the continental US."

The corresponding source also says the missile can fly as at minimal altitude as a very low elevation above the surface, making it difficult for air defences to stop.

The missile, designated a specific moniker by a Western alliance, is thought to be driven by a reactor system, which is supposed to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have launched it into the sky.

An investigation by a news agency last year located a location 295 miles above the capital as the probable deployment area of the weapon.

Utilizing space-based photos from August 2024, an specialist informed the outlet he had detected several deployment sites under construction at the site.

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