Russia puts new nuclear missile into service

Russia puts new nuclear missile into service

According to official information, Russia has put into service the new and powerful RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile. The head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said this on television on Friday, as Russian agencies reported. President Vladimir Putin had already said in June that the nuclear missile would enter service soon.

According to Russian information, the weapon with the NATO designation SS-X-30 Satan 2, which is parked in underground missile pits, can carry up to 15 individually controllable nuclear warheads. It is more likely that the US military will assume up to ten warheads. With a total weight of 208 tons, the rocket is extremely heavy and has a range of 18,000 kilometers. The new missile is intended to replace the RS-20 (NATO: SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missiles that were built in the 1980s.

In April 2022, the Russian military tested the RS-28. The rocket started in Plesetsk, in northern European Russia, and the fake explosives hit their targets in Kura, in the Far East of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Series production takes place in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia.