Russia says its newest nuclear weapons system, the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, is now operational.
“The Sarmat strategic complex has been placed on combat duty,” said Yury Borisov, director general of the state space company Roscosmos, quoted by CNN International , Saturday (2/8/2023).
The device is due to enter combat duty at the end of 2022.
The Sarmat will replace the Soviet-era Voevoda missile, known as the NATO SS-18 “Satan,” in Russia’s strategic arsenal. As the successor to the SS-18, the Sarmat was nicknamed “Satan II” in the West.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Sarmat would be capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads as far as the American continent and would “watch out for those who try to threaten Russia.”
At the time, Western analysts told CNN that the threat to the US and its allies from Satan II was “very low,” and that the weapons tests were probably intended to cover up Russia’s military failures in the war in Ukraine.
Like the SS-18, the Sarmat can carry 10 or more independently targeted nuclear warheads with a range of up to 18,000 kilometers (or about 11,185 miles), according to the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
This missile is expected to function as a replacement for the Voevoda missile.
Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, likened the Demon II to a “facelift” for the Soviet-era SS-18, although he said “there may be some improvements behind it.”
Source : CNBC
