The Russian army announced on Wednesday that it had successfully tested a giant ICBM. The RS-28 Sarmat can travel 10,000 km and destroy a territory the size of France.
The announcement of Sarmat’s test shot sends chills down the spine, especially as Vladimir Putin’s message is clear. According to the Russian President, this intercontinental nuclear missile is designed to “think” the enemies of Russia.
The launch took place from the Plesetsk launch pad in the Arkhangelsk region of northwestern Russia. The missile reportedly struck a target at the Kura military compound in Russia’s Far East’s Kamchatka Peninsula, more than 5,000 kilometers from the launch site.
It is a fifth-generation ICBM. Weighing in at over 200 tons, it’s more powerful than its predecessor and “has virtually no range limitation,” according to Vladimir Putin, who found it “capable of aiming at targets while crossing the North Pole as well as the South Pole.”
• RS-28 Sarmat, what is it?
The RS-28 Sarmat is a colossus that Russia has been developing since 2009. Weighing 200 tons, it can carry up to 10 nuclear warheads, enough to level a country the size of France or an American state like Texas. Its strength would be 100 to 200 times that of the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima.
This potential is all the more credible as it can reach destinations more than 10,000 kilometers away. Some experts say its range would be as much as 18,000km to hit any target on the planet with submunitions capable of targeting multiple targets at once.
According to Russia, its autonomy would allow it to use trajectories that pass through the North and South Poles to strike by surprise anywhere on the planet. Above all, however, it would be equipped with technology capable of “outwitting all modern anti-aircraft systems”.
• Sarmat, Satan 2, why these names?
This missile received the name Sarmat in reference to an ancient people whose territory, Sarmatia, partially bordered the Black Sea and stretched across the territories of Ukraine and southern Russia.
The etymology of this name would come from “Sauromate” itself, from the Greek “sauros”, a lizard covered in armor of scales. According to legend, the Sauromates, ancestors of the Sarmatians, were the children of Amazons who mated with Scythians.
The nickname Satan 2 was given by Westerners. It expresses the destructive power of the thermonuclear missile but also the successor to the SS-18 missile nicknamed Satan. Designed in the 1960s and manufactured at the Luzhmash Arms Factory, a former flagship of the Soviet military-industrial complex at Dnipro in eastern Ukraine.
In 2017, this factory was accused of supplying North Korea with rocket engines. The Ukrainian government has always denied and accused Russia of disseminating this information in order to undermine Kiev’s relations with Westerners.
• Is Putin threatening the West?
Sarmat’s test announcement is part of Russia’s deterrence strategy. In addition, Vladimir Putin’s statements leave no doubt.
“It is a unique weapon that will increase the military potential of our armed forces, which will protect Russia from external threats and will make those who try to threaten our country with unbridled and aggressive rhetoric think twice,” said the Russian president .
But for the Pentagon, this shot is in no way a threat to the United States or its allies. For this “routine” test, Moscow would have “properly informed” Washington beforehand, in accordance with its obligations under the nuclear treaties. So it came as no “surprise” to US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby.
In fact, the TASS agency said last year that the Sarmat program was underway and that five tests were planned for 2022. Wednesday would therefore be the first in line.
• Invincible, hypersonic and invisible, the new Russian arsenal?
The Sarmat is not Russia’s only next-generation weapon. For more than a decade, Moscow has been developing a new-generation missile arsenal that it calls invincible.
• Avangard, “invincible” missile
Russian hypersonic missiles avant-garde (“vanguard” in Russian) are capable of changing course and altitude at very high speeds, making them “virtually invincible”. Successfully tested in December 2018, its speed then reached Mach 27, or 27 times the speed of sound. They managed to hit a target about 6000 km away. They entered service in December 2019.
• Kinjal, Hypersonic “Dagger”
Hypersonic missiles used for the first time by the Russian army on Friday Kinjal (“dagger” in Russian) allowed the destruction of an underground weapons cache in western Ukraine, according to Moscow. This highly maneuverable missile type is designed to challenge anti-aircraft systems. During the tests, they all hit their targets at a distance of up to 1000-2000 km. They equip the MiG-31 fighter jets.
• Peresvet, combat laser
The technical characteristics of combat laser systems Peresvet (named after a 14th-century warrior monk) are secret. According to the Ministry of Defense, they have been operational since December 2019.
• Poseidon, underwater drone
that Poseidon, an underwater drone developed for the Russian nuclear deterrent, will be able to travel more than a kilometer deep at speeds of 60 to 70 knots while remaining invisible to detection systems. Tests of the Poseidon system took place in 2020. It will eventually equip the Belgorod nuclear submarine, a ship launched in 2019 but whose commissioning has been pushed back to the summer of 2022.
• Burevestnik, the petrel
With an “unlimited range”, according to Vladimir Putin, the Bourevestnik would be able to overcome almost all interception systems. This cruise missile, whose name comes from a seabird, whose Russian etymology is the word “storm”).
• Zirkon, “invisible” naval missile
The first official launch of the hypersonic missile zircon (named after a mineral used in jewelry) is from October 2020. It flies at Mach 9 to reach sea and land targets. At the end of December 2021, Vladimir Putin announced the first successful test shot of a zircon salvo. Further tests have been taking place in the Russian Arctic since October 2020, notably by the frigate Admiral Gorchkov and a submerged submarine.
