Russia Confirms Accomplished Evaluation of Nuclear-Powered Storm Petrel Weapon
The nation has evaluated the nuclear-powered Burevestnik long-range missile, as stated by the nation's top military official.
"We have launched a prolonged flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it traversed a 14,000km distance, which is not the ultimate range," Top Army Official Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin in a broadcast conference.
The low-altitude advanced armament, initially revealed in 2018, has been described as having a potentially unlimited range and the capability to avoid missile defences.
International analysts have previously cast doubt over the weapon's military utility and Moscow's assertions of having accomplished its evaluation.
The president declared that a "concluding effective evaluation" of the missile had been carried out in last year, but the statement was not externally confirmed. Of at least 13 known tests, just two instances had limited accomplishment since the mid-2010s, based on an non-proliferation organization.
The general stated the missile was in the air for fifteen hours during the trial on 21 October.
He noted the missile's vertical and horizontal manoeuvring were evaluated and were confirmed as up to specification, according to a local reporting service.
"Consequently, it exhibited superior performance to bypass missile and air defence systems," the news agency stated the official as saying.
The weapon's usefulness has been the topic of vigorous discussion in armed forces and security communities since it was initially revealed in the past decade.
A previous study by a US Air Force intelligence center concluded: "An atomic-propelled strategic weapon would give Russia a singular system with intercontinental range capability."
Yet, as a global defence think tank observed the corresponding time, Moscow encounters considerable difficulties in making the weapon viable.
"Its integration into the country's arsenal likely depends not only on resolving the substantial engineering obstacle of ensuring the consistent operation of the reactor drive mechanism," analysts stated.
"There were multiple unsuccessful trials, and a mishap leading to several deaths."
A defence publication quoted in the study states the weapon has a operational radius of between a substantial span, permitting "the weapon to be deployed across the country and still be capable to target targets in the American territory."
The identical publication also explains the projectile can fly as low as 164 to 328 feet above the earth, rendering it challenging for air defences to intercept.
The weapon, designated an operational name by a Western alliance, is considered driven by a reactor system, which is designed to activate after initial propulsion units have sent it into the air.
An inquiry by a media outlet last year pinpointed a location a considerable distance above the capital as the possible firing point of the missile.
Employing orbital photographs from last summer, an analyst informed the service he had identified several deployment sites in development at the site.
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