Russia on Wednesday announced the first test launch of its new nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, Sarmat.
The missile, which was fired from a facility in northern Russia at a firing range in the east, should give the country’s enemies pause for thought, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking on Russian television, he said the gun will “make those who, in the heat of frantic, aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country think twice.”
In an apparent dig at Western sanctions, he also noted that the missile was made entirely of Russian components.
Russian officials duly notified the US before the test firing, according to the Pentagon, which described the launch as “routine” and not a threat to the US.
Mr Putin claimed the missile, which hit its targets after traveling some 6,000 km (3,700 miles), was virtually impossible to defend with current technology.
“The new complex has the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of missile defense. It has no analogues in the world and will not be for a long time,” he said during a video briefing with defense officials.
Nicknamed the Satan II by some NATO leaders, the Sarmat replaces the Soviet-era Voyevoda system and has been in development for years. Mr. Putin announced the development of the ICBM in 2018.
The launch is the latest public incantation of Russia’s nuclear program in connection with the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
When Mr Putin launched the offensive in February, he warned that outside intervention “would have consequences such as you have never encountered in your history,” which many saw as a nuclear threat.
He has also put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert.
Russian forces have used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, becoming the first nation to use such weapons in a theater of war.
Hypersonic weapons move at up to five times the speed of sound and are more difficult to track and intercept than regular weapons.
The US tested its own hypersonic missile in mid-March but only announced the test in mid-March to avoid escalating tensions with Russia, CNN reported.
Russia may have failed in its initial attempt to seize the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in an overwhelming ground offensive, but the threat to the country is not over.
Nearly two months into the invasion, Russia appears to be changing strategy, amassing troops and supplies for a renewed campaign in eastern Ukraine, where Russia and its-backed separatist groups have been waging an armed insurgency for years.
“They move in heavy artillery, they move in command and control systems, they move in aviation — particularly rotating air support,” a senior Pentagon defense official told the Washington Post. “It seems they are trying to learn from the lessons of the North, where they did not have adequate conservation skills.”
As the Russian attack on Ukraine began, images surfaced of large convoys of Russian vehicles stranded without fuel and Russian soldiers looting local grocery stores.
US officials have argued that Vladimir Putin and his circle of advisers grossly underestimated the difficulty of taking Ukraine and the resolve of Ukraine’s defense efforts.
“He was confident that he had modernized his military and that it was capable of winning a quick, decisive victory at minimal cost. He’s been proven wrong on every count,” CIA Director William Burns, a former ambassador to Moscow, testified before Congress in March. “These assumptions have been shown to be profoundly flawed over the last 12 days of the conflict.”