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In a specially arranged news broadcast on Russian state television, Sergei Karakayev, commander of the strategic missile forces, shared the good news to President Vladimir Putin.
Russia has conducted successful tests of a new intercontinental ballistic missile "Sarmat," also known as the "Satan 2".
The RS-28 Sarmat is Russia's heaviest intercontinental ballistic missile and intended to be the successor to the cold-war classic RS-20 Voevoda.
According to Moscow, the Russian Sarmat missile would be designed to bypass both current and future missile defense systems. By the end of this year, the first operational regiment should be on standby in the Krasnoyarsk region. According to Russian sources, the intercontinental missile, weighing 208 tons and with a range of about 18,000 kilometers, can carry up to 15 individually targetable warheads. U.S. defense experts contradict that, holding it at a maximum of ten. An earlier test in September 2024 went awry at the Plesetsk launch base, some 800 kilometers north of Moscow, where specialists say the missile already exploded in the silo.
With a payload of about 10 tons, according to several Russian sources, the Sarmat can carry various types of payloads: multiple independently steerable warheads, or heavier systems such as hypersonic re-entry warheads. That flexibility makes the missile usable for a variety of strategic tasks and enhances its value as a deterrent.
Presenting the successful test, the Russian President said this missile is the most powerful in the world and can smoothly bypass existing missile defense systems. Putin stressed that the missile can carry multiple warheads and called its arrival an important step in the modernization of Russia's nuclear deterrent.
©picture alliance / Newscom | KREMLIN