Russia Reports Accomplished Evaluation of Nuclear-Powered Storm Petrel Weapon

The nation has evaluated the reactor-driven Burevestnik cruise missile, according to the state's top military official.

"We have executed a multi-hour flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traveled a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the limit," Senior Military Leader the general reported to President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.

The terrain-hugging prototype missile, first announced in the past decade, has been described as having a possible global reach and the capability to evade anti-missile technology.

Foreign specialists have earlier expressed skepticism over the missile's strategic value and Moscow's assertions of having accomplished its evaluation.

The president declared that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the weapon had been held in the previous year, but the statement could not be independently verified. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, only two had limited accomplishment since 2016, as per an disarmament advocacy body.

Gen Gerasimov stated the projectile was in the atmosphere for a significant duration during the evaluation on 21 October.

He explained the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were found to be up to specification, as per a national news agency.

"Consequently, it exhibited advanced abilities to evade defensive networks," the outlet reported the commander as saying.

The weapon's usefulness has been the subject of intense debate in defence and strategic sectors since it was originally disclosed in 2018.

A 2021 report by a American military analysis unit determined: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a distinctive armament with intercontinental range capability."

However, as a foreign policy research organization noted the corresponding time, Moscow faces considerable difficulties in making the weapon viable.

"Its entry into the country's arsenal arguably hinges not only on resolving the considerable technical challenge of guaranteeing the reliable performance of the nuclear-propulsion unit," analysts noted.

"There have been several flawed evaluations, and an accident causing a number of casualties."

A defence publication cited in the analysis asserts the projectile has a flight distance of between a substantial span, enabling "the weapon to be stationed across the country and still be equipped to reach goals in the American territory."

The identical publication also explains the weapon can travel as close to the ground as 50 to 100 metres above ground, causing complexity for defensive networks to intercept.

The weapon, code-named Skyfall by an international defence pact, is thought to be propelled by a atomic power source, which is supposed to engage after initial propulsion units have sent it into the air.

An investigation by a reporting service the previous year pinpointed a site 295 miles from the city as the possible firing point of the armament.

Employing space-based photos from the recent past, an analyst reported to the agency he had detected nine horizontal launch pads under construction at the location.

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