Superweapon: Russia launches, deploys ‘deadliest’ Satan II ICBM
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Nations facing multiple crises usually flex muscles to power up their people into xenophobic frenzy. Russia has done exactly that when it launched and deployed what it called the “deadliest weapon.”
Losing international credibility and prestige, an isolated President Vladimir Putin’s Russia blasted off the nuclear-capable “Satan II” Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) system on combat duty, the media reported on Saturday.
Russia has deployed its ‘invincible’ new Sarmat missile, which has a range of 18,000 kilometers and high maneuverability. The RS-28 Sarmat ICBM is referred to as the “world’s deadliest missile.”
Russian space agency, Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov, while announcing this on Saturday, did not disclose the exact date and location of the deployment.
The Sarmat missile has been nicknamed “Satan II”, as it will replace Soviet-era Voevoda missiles, known by the NATO designation SS-18 “Satan.”
The new missile is designed to carry out nuclear strikes on targets thousands of km away in the United States or Europe.
Referring to the combat capability of this next-generation ICBM, President Putin had earlier said it would make Russia’s enemies “think twice.”
Quoting the space agency chief, the state-run news agency TASS said, “Based on experts’ estimates, the RS-28 Sarmat is capable of delivering a warhead weighing up to 10 tonnes to any location worldwide, both over the North and South Poles.”
The Sarmat strategic system has assumed a combat alert posture, it reported.
RS-28 Sarmat is a nuclear-capable three-stage missile with a range of 18,000 km and a launch weight of 208.1 metric tons. It is capable of carrying up to 10 heavy or 15 light warheads, and can also carry up to 24 Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles that can maneuver in flight, making them difficult to intercept.
“The new complex has the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defense. It has no analogs in the world and won’t have for a long time to come,” Putin added.
The missile was first launched and test-fired on April 20, 2022, just two months after the Russia and Ukraine war started.
According to Sputnik News, “The RS-28 Sarmat is Russia’s next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that is set to become the backbone of the country’s silo-based strategic deterrent. With its impressive range and destructive power, the Sarmat is considered one of the deadliest nuclear missiles in the world.”
As per the Moscow Times, the RS-28 Sarmat, which the Western media dubbed as “Satan II”, is among Russia’s next-generation missiles unveiled by President Putin in 2018, which also include the Kinzhal and Avangard hypersonic missiles.
Capable of transporting multiple warheads, Sarmat is designed to elude anti-missile defense systems with a short initial boost phase, giving enemy surveillance systems a narrow window to track it down.
Russian defense committee deputy chairman Aleksey Zhuravlyov was reported to have claimed that Moscow could unleash Satan II to strike back at NATO-aspirant Finland and Sweden and also at the UK and the US.
The Sputnik News reported that while NATO designates the Sarmat missile as the ‘SS-X-29’ or ‘SS-X-30’, Western media has often referred to it as ‘Satan II’. This name is derived from the NATO reporting name ‘SS-18 Satan’, which was used for the R-36M missile system that the Sarmat is set to replace. The ‘Satan II’ moniker plays on the terrifying associations of evil and suffering, capturing the attention of the media and the public.
