Moscow Confirms Accomplished Evaluation of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Missile

Moscow has trialed the reactor-driven Burevestnik long-range missile, according to the state's top military official.

"We have executed a multi-hour flight of a reactor-driven projectile and it traversed a vast distance, which is not the limit," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov informed the Russian leader in a public appearance.

The low-altitude prototype missile, first announced in 2018, has been hailed as having a possible global reach and the ability to evade missile defences.

Western experts have previously cast doubt over the weapon's military utility and Russian claims of having successfully tested it.

The national leader declared that a "last accomplished trial" of the weapon had been conducted in the previous year, but the assertion lacked outside validation. Of over a dozen recorded evaluations, merely a pair had moderate achievement since several years ago, based on an disarmament advocacy body.

The general reported the weapon was in the air for 15 hours during the evaluation on October 21.

He said the weapon's altitude and course adjustments were evaluated and were found to be meeting requirements, based on a local reporting service.

"Therefore, it displayed advanced abilities to circumvent defensive networks," the outlet stated the general as saying.

The weapon's usefulness has been the focus of heated controversy in defence and strategic sectors since it was originally disclosed in recent years.

A recent analysis by a American military analysis unit determined: "A nuclear-powered cruise missile would provide the nation a unique weapon with intercontinental range capability."

Nonetheless, as a global defence think tank commented the same year, Moscow faces considerable difficulties in achieving operational status.

"Its induction into the nation's inventory likely depends not only on overcoming the substantial engineering obstacle of securing the dependable functioning of the atomic power system," specialists wrote.

"There were multiple unsuccessful trials, and a mishap causing several deaths."

A military journal quoted in the study states the missile has a operational radius of between a substantial span, allowing "the missile to be deployed across the country and still be able to reach objectives in the American territory."

The same journal also says the weapon can operate as at minimal altitude as 164 to 328 feet above ground, causing complexity for air defences to stop.

The projectile, code-named Skyfall by an international defence pact, is thought to be driven by a reactor system, which is supposed to commence operation after primary launch mechanisms have sent it into the sky.

An examination by a media outlet recently located a facility 475km above the capital as the probable deployment area of the armament.

Utilizing satellite imagery from last summer, an specialist told the outlet he had detected multiple firing positions under construction at the site.

Related Developments

• Head of State Endorses Revisions to Nuclear Doctrine