Russia Confirms Effective Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Weapon
The nation has evaluated the atomic-propelled Burevestnik strategic weapon, as stated by the country's senior general.
"We have executed a prolonged flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it covered a vast distance, which is not the ultimate range," Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin in a broadcast conference.
The low-altitude advanced armament, first announced in 2018, has been hailed as having a theoretically endless flight path and the ability to bypass anti-missile technology.
Western experts have previously cast doubt over the missile's strategic value and the nation's statements of having accomplished its evaluation.
The national leader said that a "last accomplished trial" of the armament had been held in 2023, but the assertion could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, only two had partial success since 2016, based on an arms control campaign group.
Gen Gerasimov said the weapon was in the air for 15 hours during the test on 21 October.
He explained the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were assessed and were confirmed as meeting requirements, according to a local reporting service.
"Therefore, it displayed advanced abilities to evade defensive networks," the news agency stated the commander as saying.
The weapon's usefulness has been the subject of heated controversy in armed forces and security communities since it was initially revealed in 2018.
A recent analysis by a US Air Force intelligence center determined: "A reactor-driven long-range projectile would offer Moscow a singular system with intercontinental range capability."
However, as an international strategic institute commented the identical period, Moscow faces major obstacles in developing a functional system.
"Its induction into the nation's inventory likely depends not only on resolving the considerable technical challenge of guaranteeing the dependable functioning of the nuclear-propulsion unit," experts noted.
"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an accident causing a number of casualties."
A armed forces periodical cited in the report asserts the projectile has a operational radius of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, enabling "the weapon to be stationed anywhere in Russia and still be able to target targets in the United States mainland."
The same journal also says the projectile can operate as low as 50 to 100 metres above the earth, causing complexity for aerial protection systems to engage.
The projectile, designated a specific moniker by a Western alliance, is thought to be propelled by a nuclear reactor, which is intended to engage after initial propulsion units have sent it into the air.
An inquiry by a reporting service last year pinpointed a site 475km north of Moscow as the probable deployment area of the weapon.
Using space-based photos from August 2024, an expert told the outlet he had detected nine horizontal launch pads in development at the site.
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