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| Satan II, Russia's Sarmat ICBM Missile |
International Military - Russia has successfully launched a Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test in the midst of its hostilities with Ukraine. Since then, Moscow has used Sarmat as a threat to its enemy countries. As is known, the missile took off from northern Russia a few weeks ago, weighing 458,000 pounds, or as many as 11 F-22A Raptor fighters.
According to Popular Mechanics, the Sarmat can deliver up to ten thermonuclear warheads and has the range to strike anywhere on Earth. The missile took off on April 20 from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome and delivered the warhead to a target 500 miles away on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Russia's TASS news agency, one of several state-controlled media, quoted the country's Ministry of Defense, as saying "The launch task was fully accomplished.
Designated characteristics are confirmed at all stages of its flight. The drill warheads arrived at the designated area at the Kura test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The new missile is capable of striking targets at long ranges, using different flight paths.
Sarmat has unique characteristics that allow it to reliably penetrate existing and future anti-ballistic missile defenses," he said. Referring to this, the Sarmat is claimed to be one of the most fantastic missiles.
The commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces Colonel General Sergei Karakev claimed in an announcement that Russia's newest land-based Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) can fly over the North and South Pole and along other trajectories. "Due to the power-to-weight ratio of the new missile system, its trajectory may change.
From our well-known passage through the North Pole, if necessary, it is possible to lay a passage through the South Pole, which, in principle, is not protected today. And there are also possibilities for other trajectories – in terms of possible launches into space," General Karakaev told TV channel Zvezda.
The Commander continued, intercepting Sarmat in the next few decades would be very difficult. "Today, they say that air defense does not exist for the Sarmat missile system, and probably will not exist in the next few decades," predicted General Karakaev.
He explained that Sarmat would be very difficult to intercept because it accelerates almost as fast as a missile with a light solid rocket motor when it becomes a liquid propellant rocket. Sarmat's ability is indeed very large.
According to Defense News, the Sarmat is a three-stage, silo-based, liquid-fueled heavy ICBM, with a reported range of 18,000 kilometers.
Dubbed "Satan II" by NATO, the missile is a replacement for the Russian-made SS-18 "Satan" ICBM, which is reaching the end of its life cycle. Sarmat has reportedly been in development since the 2000s, but rose to prominence after it was publicly mentioned during a March 2018 speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin.