The debates on Russian state television are taking an increasingly worrying turn. On April 20, while the Russian army announced the first “successful” test firing of its Sarmat ICBM, also known as “Satan 2,” journalists on set joked about calculating the time it would take one of these machines to fire they reach the various European capitals.
This weapon should be able to level a country the size of France.
According to available information, this would make the Satan 2 nuclear missile the most powerful yet developed, and no missile defense technology would be able to stop it.
According to Vladimir Putin, this fifth-generation heavy ICBM could “outsmart all modern anti-aircraft systems.”
Its official name is “RS-28 Sarmat”. It was designed to replace the aging “R-36M” missiles, nicknamed “Satan” by NATO experts. It is therefore natural that its successor has regained the nickname “Satan 2”.
Twelve nuclear warheads
The missile would have a range of 10,000 kilometers and would target European cities such as London or Paris, but also cities on the American west coast.
In addition, according to information from Russian television, Satan 2 could contain up to twelve nuclear warheads and thus destroy a territory “the size of Texas or France” in a few seconds.
An “invulnerable” weapon
In May 2021, the Russian news agency TASS claimed that Vladimir Putin’s army had the ambition to conduct three tests on a field of the “Kura” test base in the Kamchatka region in the third quarter of 2021.
The press agency had described this weapon as “invulnerable” on this occasion.
For its part, the Pentagon responded to the Russian army’s “routine” test as saying it “posed no threat.”