Moscow Announces Successful Trial of Reactor-Driven Storm Petrel Weapon

The nation has evaluated the atomic-propelled Burevestnik strategic weapon, as stated by the country's leading commander.

"We have executed a extended flight of a atomic-propelled weapon and it traveled a 8,700-mile distance, which is not the maximum," Senior Military Leader the general informed the Russian leader in a televised meeting.

The low-flying experimental weapon, originally disclosed in the past decade, has been hailed as having a potentially unlimited range and the capacity to bypass defensive systems.

International analysts have in the past questioned over the projectile's tactical importance and Moscow's assertions of having successfully tested it.

The president declared that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been conducted in the previous year, but the statement 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.

The military leader said the weapon was in the sky for a significant duration during the evaluation on the specified date.

He noted the projectile's ascent and directional control were assessed and were found to be up to specification, according to a national news agency.

"As a result, it exhibited superior performance to bypass anti-missile and aerial protection," the news agency reported the official as saying.

The projectile's application has been the topic of vigorous discussion in military and defence circles since it was initially revealed in the past decade.

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

Nonetheless, as a foreign policy research organization observed the same year, Russia encounters considerable difficulties in developing a functional system.

"Its entry into the state's inventory likely depends not only on surmounting the substantial engineering obstacle of securing the consistent operation of the nuclear-propulsion unit," analysts stated.

"There occurred numerous flight-test failures, and an accident leading to several deaths."

A armed forces periodical cited in the report asserts the weapon has a flight distance of between 10,000 and 20,000km, allowing "the projectile to be based across the country and still be equipped to strike objectives in the American territory."

The corresponding source also explains the projectile can travel as low as 50 to 100 metres above ground, rendering it challenging for aerial protection systems to engage.

The weapon, referred to as Skyfall by an international defence pact, is considered powered by a reactor system, which is supposed to commence operation after initial propulsion units have propelled it into the air.

An examination by a news agency recently pinpointed a site 475km above the capital as the possible firing point of the weapon.

Utilizing space-based photos from last summer, an expert reported to the agency he had detected several deployment sites under construction at the location.

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