Putin: This weapon forces the enemy to "think twice before acting"
According to a report on the website of Newsweek on September 2nd, Russia has strengthened its nuclear rhetoric after stating that it has put an advanced intercontinental ballistic missile into military service. Putin once said that this missile would make Moscow's enemies "think twice before acting.".
According to TASS, the official Russian news agency, Yuri Borisov, the head of the Russian National Space Group, said that the Salmat intercontinental ballistic missile has "taken on combat missions.".
What is the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile?
The RS-28 Sarmat is a liquid fueled intercontinental ballistic missile produced by the Markyev Rocket Design Agency of Russia.
The design intention of this missile was to replace the R-36 intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 9940 miles. NATO refers to the R-36 as "Satan," so its successor models are often informally referred to as "Satan 2.".
The RS-28 Salmat missile is 116 feet long, weighs 220 tons, and is said to carry up to 15 light nuclear warheads. This missile has a range of 11000 miles and can strike targets in the United States and Europe.
In contrast, the US LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile weighs about 36 tons, has a range of approximately 8100 miles, and a diameter of 5.5 feet.
▲ "Sarmat" intercontinental ballistic missile
The Salmat is a missile based on a launch well, and it is believed that its initial launch phase is very short, which means the monitoring system has almost no time to track its launch takeoff.
On April 20, 2022, the Russian side test fired this missile from Plesetsk in the Arkhangelsk region, 500 miles north of Moscow. According to reports, the missile hit a target on the Kamchatka Peninsula located 3700 miles away in the Far East region of Russia.
As part of the "next-generation" nuclear missile technology, the "Sarmat" intercontinental ballistic missile is one of the six new Russian strategic weapons announced by Putin in his State of the Union address on March 1, 2018.
After its first successful test launch in April 2022, Putin stated that the missile has "the highest tactical and technical characteristics, capable of defeating all modern anti missile defense methods.".
He said that the missile is unique globally and there will be no similar weapons for a long time in the future. Putin also said that this weapon will make those who attempt to threaten Russia "think twice before acting.".
However, Pavel Podwig, who is responsible for the "Russian Nuclear Forces" research project in Geneva, wrote on X website that in February of this year, Russia's second test launch of the "Sarmat" intercontinental ballistic missile failed due to a second stage malfunction. He wrote, "Besides, people have other questions. So before we were confirmed, we went back to a state of success, failure, and no deployment."
