Rearmament
Sarmat RS-28-Putin tests the world’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile
The Sarmat RS-28 is about to enter India
© Ministry of Defence Russia / PR
NATO calls this rocket “Satan 2” – it was developed for the hypersonic glider Avantgard and can reach any point on Earth. Currently there is no way to intercept rocket and glider.
In 2018, Vladimir Putin announced a whole bundle of new high-tech weapons. A central component is the new RS-28 Sarmat ICBM launcher. Among other things, it is designed to bring the novel steerable hypersonic gliders up into the air. They will release from the rocket only at the apex before re-entry into the atmosphere. The other missiles are: the Avangard hypersonic glider, the Nikon anti-ship missile, the doomsday torpedo Poseidon, the Kinzhal airborne missile and a nuclear-powered cruise missile.
On the way to service
Now the first test launches of the silo-based rocket have been announced. “The first flight development test launch of the Sarmat ICBM is tentatively scheduled for the third quarter of 2021. A field in the Kura test range on Kamchatka will be a target, ” TASS quoted an official of the Russian defense industry saying. The Sarmat clearly exceeds the performance of its predecessor R-36M2. The rocket weighs 208,1 tons, the payload is almost 10 tons. This range is 18,000 kilometers. This increase in range is important because it allows the missile to attack targets in the US on different trajectories. The actual operational range can be even much higher, namely when hypersonic gliders are transported. No wonder that the NATO code name is dramatically “Satan 2”. The Sarmat can therefore fly on unpredictable routes and thus bypass the missile defense zones of the USA. It can even fly over the South Pole. The Ministry of Defence is said to have already purchased serially produced missiles. Commissioning is expected to begin in 2022.
A few from the dangerous re-entry body
In some cases, Western media have converted the payload so that the missile can carry a frightening number of nuclear warheads. Up to 16 nuclear warheads would be possible. Such use is rather unlikely. The RS-28 Sarmat will instead carry defensive weapons against attacking missiles. It is also to be expected that the missile will transport dummies next to the real warhead in order to deceive the US defense. In addition, the new rocket will be able to accelerate far faster, thus shortening the active flight phase in which the rocket accelerates and is visible and vulnerable to missile defense.
Dangerous Duo
The strongest and most dangerous re-entry body for the Sarmat should be the Avangard hypersonic glider. It is said to have already been mounted on an older rocket, but experts assume that Avangard and Sarmat were developed for joint use. This glider remains fully steerable when re-entering the atmosphere. Since he then no longer follows a ballistic trajectory, it is not possible to send him a defensive missile. Together with the longer range of the launch rocket, today’s existing US missile defense becomes so largely useless. To eliminate Sarmat and Avantgard, completely new systems would have to be developed and paid for. In the struggle between the US and Russia, which is far weaker economically, the battle of the arms dollars plays a decisive role. Russia’s new weapons are also always aimed at threatening or making far more expensive US weapons systems obsolete.
Sarmat does not violate existing arms agreements. When the RS-28 is assigned to the strategic forces, the older Voevoda ICBM will be taken out of service in equal numbers.
