Russia Announces Accomplished Trial of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Cruise Missile
The nation has evaluated the atomic-propelled Burevestnik cruise missile, as reported by the country's top military official.
"We have conducted a multi-hour flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traveled a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the maximum," Senior Military Leader the commander informed the Russian leader in a televised meeting.
The terrain-hugging advanced armament, first announced in the past decade, has been portrayed as having a possible global reach and the capability to avoid defensive systems.
Foreign specialists have previously cast doubt over the missile's strategic value and Moscow's assertions of having effectively trialed it.
The president said that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the weapon had been held in 2023, but the statement could not be independently verified. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, just two instances had partial success since 2016, according to an disarmament advocacy body.
The general said the weapon was in the atmosphere for 15 hours during the trial on October 21.
He noted the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were found to be complying with standards, based on a national news agency.
"Consequently, it exhibited high capabilities to bypass anti-missile and aerial protection," the media source reported the general as saying.
The projectile's application has been the topic of intense debate in armed forces and security communities since it was first announced in the past decade.
A previous study by a US Air Force intelligence center determined: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would give Russia a singular system with worldwide reach potential."
However, as a global defence think tank noted the same year, Moscow confronts major obstacles in making the weapon viable.
"Its integration into the state's stockpile likely depends not only on resolving the considerable technical challenge of guaranteeing the consistent operation of the reactor drive mechanism," specialists wrote.
"There were numerous flight-test failures, and an accident resulting in a number of casualties."
A defence publication referenced in the report states the missile has a flight distance of between a substantial span, enabling "the weapon to be deployed anywhere in Russia and still be able to target goals in the continental US."
The corresponding source also says the projectile can fly as low as 50 to 100 metres above the earth, causing complexity for defensive networks to engage.
The weapon, designated a specific moniker by a Western alliance, is believed to be driven by a nuclear reactor, which is designed to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have sent it into the sky.
An investigation by a news agency last year located a site 475km from the city as the likely launch site of the armament.
Utilizing satellite imagery from August 2024, an analyst reported to the service he had observed multiple firing positions being built at the site.
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