President Vladimir Putin said o that Russia’s new generation of Sarmat intercontinental
ballistic missiles, would soon be deployed for combat duty.
RS-28 Sarmat ICBM is dubbed “Satan 2 by NATO.
Viewers may note that in Apr last year, after the successful test launch of the missile,
Russian President Vladimir Putin had said on Russian TV “[It ] has the highest tactical and
technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile
defense. It has no analogues in the world and will not have for a long time to come"
Putin had stated,
“This truly unique weapon will strengthen the combat potential of our armed forces,
reliably ensure Russia’s security in the face of external threats, and will provide food
for thought to those who in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric try to threaten our country”
In this video, Defense Updates analyses why the imminent deployment of Russia's Sarmat ICBM is
something NATO can’t ignore? Let's get into the details.
Sarmat was introduced during a 2018 Russian state-of-the-nation address
as the “next generation” of weaponry that could breach “any missile defense” system.
According to the concept of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction), if the other side
knew that initiating a nuclear strike would also inevitably lead to their own destruction,
they will not initiate a nuclear attack. So basically MAD prevents nuclear war.
As the United States and NATO are improving their (Ballistic Missile
Defense ) BMD systems, MAD is getting threatened, since USA or NATO may be
able to intercept Russia’s current nuclear missiles like R-36 Satan.
Sarmat has been designed specifically to penetrate any current or future
BMD system so that Russia can maintain nuclear deterrence vis-à-vis the United States and NATO.
Sarmat is a 3-stage missile and uses Liquid Propellant
the exact nature of which is classified.
The missile has a speed of over Mach 20.7. It weighs in at a massive 200 tons,
making it the heaviest missile in the world. To give viewers a perspective, the US land-based
strategic missile LGM-30 Minuteman 3, has a weight of 35 tons approximately.
Speaking to Radio Sputnik, Alexei Leonov a military expert and commercial director of
“Arsenal of the Fatherland” magazine provide insight about the missile some time back.
The military expert emphasized that Sarmat will serve as a reliable deterrent. Leonkov highlighted
the particular interest of the US and European mainstream media towards the Russian missile,
which was dubbed the "devil in disguise", "Satan" and "weapons of nuclear hell."
Leonov said, “Let them call it what they want. The [Sarmat] missile system which is about to
enter into service is a fifth-generation system. Its characteristics are so impressive that our
opponents have reason to be afraid of it. According to some estimates, the missile's
striking range is up to 18,000 kilometers or 11,184.6 miles. It also has a large number
of divided parts, from 10 to 15 warheads, each with a capacity of up to 750 kilotons.
They will fly to their target at hypersonic speeds performing maneuvers so that the
existing American missile defense system would be incapable of intercepting them”.
Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of 15 kt of TNT.
Samrat’s cumulative explosive power will be 15 warheads multiplied by 750 kt which is around
11,000 kt of TNT. It will also be able to accommodate
Hypersonic Boost Glide Vehicle as well as decoys. The Russian news outlet Sputnik reported that a
single Sarmat is “capable of wiping out parts of the Earth the size of France or Texas”.
At the end of June 2015, it was reported that the production schedule for the first prototype
of the Sarmat was slipping. The RS-28 Sarmat was expected to become operational in 2016.
On 10 August 2016, Russia successfully tested the RS-28's first-stage engine named PDU-99.
The first image of this new missile was declassified and unveiled in October 2016.
It was reported earlier that the production process had been accelerated and that the missiles
would make up almost 100% of Russia's fixed land-based nuclear arsenal by the end of 2022.
But as evident, its deployment has been delayed.
Land-Based missiles are vulnerable to preemptive strikes and hence Russian
experts are going to great lengths to shield Sarmat.
The Sarmat’s silos will be protected by active protection measures including 100 guns capable of
firing a metallic cloud of 40,000 30 mm bullets to an altitude of up to 6 km or 3.7 miles.
The Russians are also planning to protect the Sarmat with their new S-500 air defense systems.
With a planned range of 600 km (370 mi) for anti-ballistic missiles (ABM) and 500 km (310 mi)
for air defense, the S-500 would be able to detect and simultaneously engage up to 10 ballistic
hypersonic targets flying at a speed of 5 km per second (3.1 mi/s) to a limit of 7 km/s (4.3 mi/s)
Finally, the missile's preparation to launch
is under 60 seconds utilizing a highly automated launch system.
The super-heavy Sarmat is probably the most destructive individual platform ever built.
The timing of the announcement is significant here.
It is clear that it has been done as a warning to NATO.
Putin has said in the same announcement "the
weapons of the Russian nuclear triad make it possible to effectively and
reliably ensure strategic deterrence and maintain the global balance of power".
Putin also claimed that about half of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces
units (SMFR) are equipped with the latest Yars thermonuclear ICBMs and that SMFR is allegedly
being rearmed with modern missile systems with a hypersonic warhead called Avangard.
To know more on Avangard , check the video on above card
He also assured that the plans to improve the potential of all
components of the Russian Armed Forces would be fully implemented.
There is not hard to see that there is a concerted effort by Russia to bulk up
its strategic military capabilities and and Sarmat will play a key role in this.