Russia Reports Successful Test of Nuclear-Powered Storm Petrel Cruise Missile
The nation has evaluated the reactor-driven Burevestnik cruise missile, as stated by the country's top military official.
"We have conducted a extended flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traveled a 14,000km distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official the general reported to the head of state in a broadcast conference.
The low-flying prototype missile, first announced in the past decade, has been hailed as having a possible global reach and the capability to bypass missile defences.
Western experts have in the past questioned over the weapon's military utility and the nation's statements of having effectively trialed it.
The president said that a "final successful test" of the armament had been carried out in the previous year, but the statement was not externally confirmed. Of a minimum of thirteen documented trials, just two instances had partial success since several years ago, based on an arms control campaign group.
Gen Gerasimov stated the weapon was in the sky for 15 hours during the test on 21 October.
He explained the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were tested and were confirmed as complying with standards, based on a local reporting service.
"Therefore, it displayed high capabilities to bypass anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency stated the general as saying.
The weapon's usefulness has been the focus of heated controversy in defence and strategic sectors since it was first announced in recent years.
A 2021 report by a American military analysis unit determined: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would offer Moscow a singular system with global strike capacity."
Yet, as an international strategic institute commented the corresponding time, Moscow confronts major obstacles in making the weapon viable.
"Its entry into the country's inventory likely depends not only on overcoming the considerable technical challenge of securing the dependable functioning of the atomic power system," analysts noted.
"There were multiple unsuccessful trials, and a mishap resulting in multiple fatalities."
A military journal referenced in the analysis asserts the weapon has a flight distance of between 6,200 and 12,400 miles, permitting "the projectile to be based anywhere in Russia and still be equipped to reach targets in the American territory."
The same journal also notes the weapon can travel as at minimal altitude as a very low elevation above the earth, rendering it challenging for aerial protection systems to engage.
The missile, referred to as Skyfall by a foreign security organization, is considered powered by a atomic power source, which is supposed to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have propelled it into the sky.
An investigation by a news agency last year identified a facility a considerable distance from the city as the likely launch site of the weapon.
Using space-based photos from the recent past, an analyst told the service he had detected multiple firing positions being built at the site.
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