The RS-28 Sarmat missile system, capable of carrying a dozen nuclear warheads, “will make those trying to threaten Russia think twice,” Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
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Posted on 4/20/2022 5:18 PM Updated on 4/20/2022 6:02 PM
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It “will make those who try to threaten Russia think twice,” Vladimir Putin said on TV. In full offensive against Ukraine, the Russian leader took part in the first test firing of a new ICBM, the RS-28 Sarmat, on Wednesday, April 20, according to Russian news agencies.
The launch of this “unique weapon” took place at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, 800 km north of Moscow, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The warheads it carried reached the Koura impact zone in Kamchatka, 6,100 kilometers away. It is the most powerful missile with the longest kill range in the world and the first in a test program, the ministry said. It is believed to be carrying a dozen nuclear warheads, Guy Martin, editor-in-chief of South Africa’s defenseWeb, told AFP.
Dubbed the “Satan 2” by NATO analysts, this fifth-generation Sarmat missile is designed to evade missile defenses. Weighing in at over 200 tons, it surpasses its predecessor, the Voevoda missile, with a range of 11,000km and “has virtually no range limitation,” according to Vladimir Putin, who thinks it “can also target targets that… crossing the North Pole the South Pole”.
This weapon is one of a number of other missiles presented by Vladimir Putin as “invisible” in 2018, including the Kinjal and Avangard hypersonic missiles. “This type of missile is a new type of technology that is not constrained by the New Start Treaty, a strategic nuclear weapons reduction treaty signed between Russia and the United States in 2010,” said Corentin Brustlein, director by franceinfo, 2019 Center for Security Studies at the French Institute for International Relations.